THE  LIBRARY 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


OF  CAL IFORNIA 


LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 

From  the  library  of 

Henry  Goldman,   Ph.D. 

1886-1972 


MUTUAL    AID 


MUTUAL  AID 

A  FACTOR  OF  EVOLUTION 


BV 

P.    KROPOTKIN 


Revised  Edition 


NEW   YORK 

McCLURE    PHILLIPS   &    Co. 

1904 


PRINTED   IN   ENGLAND 


All  rights   reserved 


nn 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  .  ...  .          .          .          .    vii 

CHAPTER  I 

MUTUAL  AID  AMONG  ANIMALS 

Struggle  for  existence. — Mutual  Aid — a  law  of  Nature  and  chief 
factor  of  progressive  evolution. — Invertebrates. — Ants  and  bees. — 
Birds  :  Hunting  and  fishing  associations. — Sociability. — Mutual  pro- 
tection among  small  birds. — Cranes  ;  parrots  .  .  ;.  i 

CHAPTER   II 

MUTUAL  AID  AMONG  ANIMALS  (continued) 

Migrations  of  birds. — Breeding  associations. — Autumn  societies. — 
Mammals  :  small  number  of  unsociable  species. — Hunting  associa- 
tions of  wolves,  lions,  etc. — Societies  of  rodents  ;  of  ruminants  ;  of 
monkeys. — Mutual  Aid  in  the  struggle  for  life. — Darwin's  arguments 
to  prove  the  struggle  for  life  within  the  species. — Natural  checks  to 
over-multiplication. — Supposed  extermination  of  intermediate  links. — 
Elimination  of  competition  in  Nature  .  ;•••'••  .  .  32 

CHAPTER   III 

MUTUAL  AID  AMONG  SAVAGES 

Supposed  war  of  each  against  all. — Tribal  origin  of  human  society. 
— Late  appearance  of  the  separate  family. — Bushmen,  Hottentots. — 
Australians,  Papuas. — Eskimos,  Aleoutes. — Features  of  savage  life 
difficult  to  understand  for  the  European. — The  Dayak's  conception 
of  justice. — Common  law  .  .  .  .  .  .76 

CHAPTER   IV 

MUTUAL  AID  AMONG  THE  BARBARIANS 

The  great  migrations. — New  organization  rendered  necessary.— 
The  village  community. — Communal  work. — Judicial  procedure. — 
Inter-tribal  law. — Illustrations  from  the  life  of  our  contemporaries. — 
Buryates. — Kabyles. — Caucasian  mountaineers. — African  stems  .  115 

CHAPTER  V 

MUTUAL  AID  IN  THE  MEDIAEVAL  CITY 

Growth  of  authority  in  Barbarian  society. — Serfdom  in  the  villages. 
— Revolt  of  the  fortified  towns  :  their  liberation  ;  their  charts. — 
The  guild. — Double  origin  of  the  free  mediaeval  city. — Self-jurisdic- 
tion, self-administration. — Honourable  position  of  labour. — Trade  by 
the  guild  and  by  the  city  .  .  .  .  .  .  153 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VI 

MUTUAL  AID  IN  THE  MEDIAEVAL  CITY  (continued) 

Likeness  and  diversity  among  the  mediaeval  cities. — The  craft- 
guilds  :  State-attributes  in  each  of  them. — Attitude  of  the  city 
towards  the  peasants  ;  attempts  to  free  them. — The  lords. — Results 
achieved  by  the  mediaeval  city  :  in  arts,  in  learning. — Causes  of 
decay  .  .....  187 

CHAPTER  VII 

MUTUAL  AID  AMONGST  OURSELVES 

Popular  revolts  at  the  beginning  of  the  State-period. — Mutual  Aid 
institutions  of  the  present  time.  —  The  village  community  :  its 
struggles  for  resisting  its  abolition  by  the  State. — Habits  derived 
from  the  village-community  life,  retained  in  our  modern  villages. — 
Switzerland,  France,  Germany,  Russia  .....  223 

CHAPTER  VIII 

MUTUAL  AID  AMONGST  OURSELVES  (continued} 

Labour-unions  grown  after  the  destruction  of  the  guilds  by  the 
State. — Their  struggles. — Mutual  Aid  in  strikes. — Co-operation. — 
Free  associations  for  various  purposes. — Self-sacrifice. — Countless 
societies  for  combined  action  under  all  possible  aspects. — Mutual  Aid 
in  slum-life. — Personal  aid  ......  262 

CONCLUSION  .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .293 

APPENDIX 

I.  SWARMS  OF  BUTTERFLIES,  DRAGON-FLIES,  ETC              .               .  301 

II.  THE  ANTS                .-            ;,.,       ...  .               .   ,..          .               .               .  302 

III.  NESTING  ASSOCIATIONS    ......  304 

IV,  SOCIABILITY  OF  ANIMALS             .,              .               .               .               .  306 

V.  CHECKS  TO  OVER-MULTIPLICATION        ....   307 

VI.  ADAPTATIONS  TO  AVOID   COMPETITION                 .                .                .   310 

VII.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  FAMILY     .               .               .               .               .313 

VIII.  DESTRUCTION  OF  PRIVATE  PROPERTY  ON  THE  GRAVE           .  320 

ix.    THE  "UNDIVIDED  FAMILY"      .....  320 

X.      THE  ORIGIN  OF   THE  GUILDS     .  .  .  .  .321 

XI.     THE  MARKET  AND  THE  MEDIAEVAL  CITY          .  .  .325 

XII.      MUTUAL-AID    ARRANGEMENTS     IN    THE    VILLAGES     OF    'NE- 

THERLAND  AT  THE  PRESENT  DAY  .  .  .   327 

INDEX         .  .  .  -,:,..  .   329 


Two  aspects  of  animal  life  impressed  me  most 
during  the  journeys  which  I  made  in  my  youth  in 
Eastern  Siberia  and  Northern  Manchuria.  One  of 
them  was  the  extreme  severity  of  the  struggle  for 
existence  which  most  species  of  animals  have  to  carry 
on  against  an  inclement  Nature ;  the  enormous  de- 
struction of  life  which  periodically  results  from  natural 
agencies ;  and  the  consequent  paucity  of  life  over  the 
vast  territory  which  fell  under  my  observation.  And  the 
other  was,  that  even  in  those  few  spots  where  animal 
life  teemed  in  abundance,  I  failed  to  find — although  I 
was  eagerly  looking  for  it — that  bitter  struggle  for  the 
means  of  existence,  among  animals  belonging  to  the 
same  species,  which  was  considered  by  most  Darwinists 
(though  not  always  by  Darwin  himself)  as  the  dominant 
characteristic  of  struggle  for  life,  and  the  main  factor 
of  evolution. 

The  terrible  snow-storms  which  sweep  over  the 
northern  portion  of  Eurasia  in  the  later  part  of  the 
winter,  and  the  glazed  frost  that  often  follows  them  ; 
the  frosts  and  the  snow-storms  which  return  every  year 
in  the  second  half  of  May,  when  the  trees  are  already 
in  full  blossom  and  insect  life  swarms  everywhere  ;  the 
early  frosts  and,  occasionally,  the  heavy  snowfalls  in 
July  and  August,  which  suddenly  destroy  myriads  of 
insects,  as  well  as  the  second  broods  of  the  birds  in 
the  prairies ;  the  torrential  rains,  due  to  the  monsoons, 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

which  fall  in  more  temperate  regions  in  August  and 
September — resulting  in  inundations  on  a  scale  which 
is  only  known  in  America  and  in  Eastern  Asia,  and 
swamping,  on  the  plateaus,  areas  as  wide  as  European 
States ;  and  finally,  the  heavy  snowfalls,  early  in 
October,  which  eventually  render  a  territory  as  large 
as  France  and  Germany,  absolutely  impracticable  for 
ruminants,  and  destroy  them  by  the  thousand — these 
were  the  conditions  under  which  I  saw  animal  life 
struggling  in  Northern  Asia.  They  made  me  realize 
at  an  early  date  the  overwhelming  importance  in 
Nature  of  what  Darwin  described  as  "  the  natural 
checks  to  over-multiplication,"  in  comparison  to  the 
struggle  between  individuals  of  the  same  species  for 
the  means  of  subsistence,  which  may  go  on  here  and 
there,  to  some  limited  extent,  but  never  attains  the 
importance  of  the  former.  Paucity  of  life,  under- 
population — not  over-population — being  the  distinctive 
feature  of  that  immense  part  of  the  globe  which  we 
name  Northern  Asia,  I  conceived  since  then  serious 
doubts — which  subsequent  study  has  only  confirmed 
— as  to  the  reality  of  that  fearful  competition  for  food 
and  life  within  each  species,  which  was  an  article  of 
faith  with  most  Darwinists,  and,  consequently,  as  to 
the  dominant  part  which  this  sort  of  competition  was 
supposed  to  play  in  the  evolution  of  new  species. 

On  the  other  hand,  wherever  I  saw  animal  life  in 
abundance,  as,  for  instance,  on  the  lakes  where  scores 
of  species  and  millions  of  individuals  came  together 
to  rear  their  progeny ;  in  the  colonies  of  rodents ;  in 
the  migrations  of  birds  which  took  place  at  that  time 
on  a  truly  American  scale  along  the  Usuri ;  and 
especially  in  a  migration  of  fallow-deer  which  I 
witnessed  on  the  Amur,  and  during  which  scores  of 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

thousands  of  these  intelligent  animals  came  together 
from  an  immense  territory,  flying  before  the  coming 
deep  snow,  in  order  to  cross  the  Amur  where  it  is 
narrowest — in  all  these  scenes  of  animal  life  which 
passed  before  my  eyes,  I  saw  Mutual  Aid  and  Mutual 
Support  carried  on  to  an  extent  which  made  me 
suspect  in  it  a  feature  of  the  greatest  importance  for 
the  maintenance  of  life,  the  preservation  of  each 
species,  and  its  further  evolution. 

And  finally,  I  saw  among  the  semi-wild  cattle  and 
horses  in  Transbaikalia,  among  the  wild  ruminants 
everywhere,  the  squirrels,  and  so  on,  that  when 
animals  have  to  struggle  against  scarcity  of  food,  in 
consequence  of  one  of  the  above-mentioned  causes, 
the  whole  of  that  portion  of  the  species  which  is 
affected  by  the  calamity,  comes  out  of  the  ordeal  so 
much  impoverished  in  vigour  and  health,  that  no 
progressive  evolution  of  the  species  can  be  based  upon 
suck  periods  of  keen  competition. 

Consequently,  when  my  attention  was  drawn,  later 
on,  to  the  relations  between  Darwinism  and  Sociology, 
I  could  agree  with  none  of  the  works  and  pamphlets 
that  had  been  written  upon  this  important  subject. 
They  all  endeavoured  to  prove  that  Man,  owing  to 
his  higher  intelligence  and  knowledge,  may  mitigate 
the  harshness  of  the  struggle  for  life  between  men ; 
but  they  all  recognized  at  the  same  time  that 
the  struggle  for  the  means  of  existence,  of  every 
animal  against  all  its  congeners,  and  of  every  man 
against  all  other  men,  was  "  a  law  of  Nature."  This 
view,  however,  I  could  not  accept,  because  I  was 
persuaded  that  to  admit  a  pitiless  inner  war  for  life 
within  each  species,  and  to  see  in  that  war  a  condition 
of  progress,  was  to  admit  something  which  not  only 


x  INTRODUCTION 

had  not  yet  been  proved,  but  also  lacked  confirmation 
from  direct  observation. 

On  the  contrary,  a  lecture  "  On  the  Law  of  Mutual 
Aid,"  which  was  delivered  at  a  Russian  Congress  of 
Naturalists,  in  January  1880,  by  the  well-known 
zoologist,  Professor  Kessler,  the  then  Dean  of  the 
St.  Petersburg  University,  struck  me  as  throwing  a 
new  light  on  the  whole  subject.  Kessler's  idea  was, 
that  besides  the  law  of  Mutual  Struggle  there  is  in 
Nature  the  law  of  Mutual  Aid,  which,  for  the  success 
of  the  struggle  for  life,  and  especially  for  the  pro- 
gressive evolution  of  the  species,  is  far  more  important 
than  the  law  of  mutual  contest.  This  suggestion — 
which  was,  in  reality,  nothing  but  a  further  develop- 
ment of  the  ideas  expressed  by  Darwin  himself  in 
The  Descent  of  Man — seemed  to  me  so  correct  and 
of  so  great  an  importance,  that  since  I  became 
acquainted  with  it  (in  1883)  I  began  to  collect 
materials  for  further  developing  the  idea,  which 
Kessler  had  only  cursorily  sketched  in  his  lecture, 
but  had  not  lived  to  develop.  He  died  in  1881. 

In  one  point  only  I  could  not  entirely  endorse 
Kessler's  views.  Kessler  alluded  to  "  parental  feel- 
ing" and  care  for  progeny  (see  below,  Chapter  I.)  as  to 
the  source  of  mutual  inclinations  in  animals.  How- 
ever, to  determine  how  far  these  two  feelings  have 
really  been  at  work  in  the  evolution  of  sociable 
instincts,  and  how  far  other  instincts  have  been  a*t  work 
in  the  same  direction,  seems  to  me  a  quite  distinct  and 
a  very  wide  question,  which  we  hardly  can  discuss 
yet.  It  will  be  only  after  we  have  well  established 
the  facts  of  mutual  aid  in  different  classes  of  animals, 
and  their  importance  for  evolution,  that  we  shall  be 
able  to  study  what  belongs  in  the  evolution  of  sociable 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

feelings,  to  parental  feelings,  and  what  to  sociability 
proper — the  latter  having  evidently  its  origin  at  the 
earliest  stages  of  the  evolution  of  the  animal  world, 
perhaps  even  at  the  "colony-stages."  I  consequently 
directed  my  chief  attention  to  establishing  first  of  all, 
the  importance  of  the  Mutual  Aid  factor  of  evolution, 
leaving  to  ulterior  research  the  task  of  discovering  the 
origin  of  the  Mutual  Aid  instinct  in  Nature. 

The  importance  of  the  Mutual  Aid  factor — "  if  its 
generality  could  only  be  demonstrated " — did  not 
escape  the  naturalist's  genius  so  manifest  in  Goethe. 
When  Eckermann  told  once  to  Goethe — it  was  in 
1827 — that  two  little  wren-fledglings,  which  had  run 
away  from  him,  were  found  by  him  next  day  in  a 
nest  of  robin  redbreasts  (Rothkehlchen),  which  fed  the 
little  ones,  together  with  their  own  youngsters,  Goethe 
grew  quite  excited  about  this  fact.  He  saw  in  it  a 
confirmation  of  his  pantheistic  views,  and  said : — "  If 
it  be  true  that  this  feeding  of  a  stranger  goes  through 
all  Nature  as  something  having  the  character  of  a 
general  law — then  many  an  enigma  would  be  solved." 
He  returned  to  this  matter  on  the  next  day,  and  most 
earnestly  entreated  Eckermann  (who  was,  as  is 
known,  a  zoologist)  to  make  a  special  study  of  the 
subject,  adding  that  he  would  surely  come  "  to  quite 
invaluable  treasuries  of  results "  (Gespriiche,  edition 
of  1848,  vol.  iii.  pp.  219,  221).  Unfortunately,  this 
study  was  never  made,  although  it  is  very  possible 
that  Brehm,  who  has  accumulated  in  his  works  such 
rich  materials  relative  to  mutual  aid  among  animals, 
might  have  been  inspired  by  Goethe's  remark. 

Several  works  of  importance  were  published  in  the 
years  1872-1886,  dealing  with  the  intelligence  and 
the  mental  life  of  animals  (they  are  mentioned  in  a 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

footnote  in  Chapter  I.  of  this  book),  and  three  of 
them  dealt  more  especially  with  the  subject  under 
consideration ;  namely,  Les  Socie'te's  animates,  by 
Espinas  (Paris,  1877) ;  La  Lutte  pour  P  existence  et 
r association  pour  la  lutte,  a  lecture  by  J.  L.  Lanessan 
(April  1881) ;  and  Louis  Biichner's  book,  Liebe  und 
Liebes-Leben  in  der  Thierwelt,  of  which  the  first 
edition  appeared  in  1882  or  1883,  and  a  second,  much 
enlarged,  in  1885.  But  excellent  though  each  of 
these  works  is,  they  leave  ample  room  for  a  work 
in  which  Mutual  Aid  would  be  considered,  not  only 
as  an  argument  in  favour  of  a  pre-human  origin  of  moral 
instincts,  but  also  as  a  law  of  Nature  and  a  factor  of 
evolution.  Espinas  devoted  his  main  attention  to 
such  animal  societies  (ants,  bees)  as  are  established 
upon  a  physiological  division  of  labour,  and  though 
his  work  is  full  of  admirable  hints  in  all  possible 
directions,  it  was  written  at  a  time  when  the  evolution 
of  human  societies  could  not  yet  be  treated  with  the 
knowledge  we  now  possess.  Lanessan's  lecture  has 
more  the  character  of  a  brilliantly-laid-out  general 
plan  of  a  work,  in  which  mutual  support  would  be 
dealt  with,  beginning  with  rocks  in  the  sea,  and  then 
passing  in  review  the  world  of  plants,  of  animals  and 
men.  As  to  Biichner's  work,  suggestive  though  it  is 
and  rich  in  facts,  I  could  not  agree  with  its  leading 
idea.  The  book  begins  with  a  hymn  to  Love,  and 
nearly  all  its  illustrations  are  intended  to  prove  the 
existence  of  love  and  sympathy  among  animals. 
However,  to  reduce  animal  sociability  to  love  and 
sympathy  means  to  reduce  its  generality  and  its  im- 
portance, just  as  human  ethics  based  upon  love  and 
personal  sympathy  only  have  contributed  to  narrow 
the  comprehension  of  the  moral  feeling  as  a  whole. 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

It  is  not  love  to  my  neighbour — whom  I  often  do 
not  know  at  all — which  induces  me  to  seize  a  pail  of 
water  and  to  rush  towards  his  house  when  I  see  it 
on  fire ;  it  is  a  far  wider,  even  though  more  vague 
feeling  or  instinct  of  human  solidarity  and  sociability 
which  moves  me.  So  it  is  also  with  animals.  It 
is  not  love,  and  not  even  sympathy  (understood  in 
its  proper  sense)  which  induces  a  herd  of  ruminants 
or  of  horses  to  form  a  ring  in  order  to  resist  an 
attack  of  wolves  ;  not  love  which  induces  wolves  to 
form  a  pack  for  hunting ;  not  love  which  induces 
kittens  or  lambs  to  play,  or  a  dozen  of  species 
of  young  birds  to  spend  their  days  together  in  the 
autumn ;  and  it  is  neither  love  nor  personal  sympathy 
which  induces  many  thousand  fallow-deer  scattered 
over  a  territory  as  large  as  France  to  form  into  a 
score  of  separate  herds,  all  marching  towards  a  given 
spot,  in  order  to  cross  there  a  river.  It  is  a  feeling 
infinitely  wider  than  love  or  personal  sympathy — an 
instinct  that  has  been  slowly  developed  among  animals 
and  men  in  the  course  of  an  extremely  long  evolution, 
and  which  has  taught  animals  and  men  alike  the  force 
they  can  borrow  from  the  practice  of  mutual  aid  and 
support,  and  the  joys  they  can  find  in  social  life. 

The  importance  of  this  distinction  will  be  easily 
appreciated  by  the  student  of  animal  psychology,  and 
the  more  so  by  the  student  of  human  ethics.  Love, 
sympathy  and  self-sacrifice  certainly  play  an  immense 
part  in  the  progressive  development  of  our  moral  feel- 
ings. But  it  is  not  love  and  not  even  sympathy  upon 
which  Society  is  based  in  mankind.  It  is  the  con- 
science— be  it  only  at  the  stage  of  an  instinct — of 
human  solidarity.  It  is  the  unconscious  recognition  of 
the  force  that  is  borrowed  by  each  man  from  the 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

practice  of  mutual  aid  ;  of  the  close  dependency  of 
every  one's  happiness  upon  the  happiness  of  all ;  and 
of  the  sense  of  justice,  or  equity,  which  brings  the 
individual  to  consider  the  rights  of  every  other  in- 
dividual as  equal  to  his  own.  Upon  this  broad  and 
necessary  foundation  the  still  higher  moral  feelings  are 
developed.  But  this  subject  lies  outside  the  scope  of 
the  present  work,  and  I  shall  only  indicate  here  a 
lecture,  "  Justice  and  Morality,"  which  I  delivered  in 
reply  to  Huxley's  Ethics,  and  in  which  the  subject 
has  been  treated  at  some  length. 

Consequently  I  thought  that  a  book,  written  on 
Mutual  Aid  as  a  Law  of  Nature  and  a  factor  of 
evolution,  might  fill  an  important  gap.  When  Huxley 
issued,  in  1888,  his  "  Struggle-for-life "  manifesto 
(Struggle  for  Existence  and  its  Bearing  upon  Man), 
which  to  my  appreciation  was  a  very  incorrect  repre- 
sentation of  the  facts  of  Nature,  as  one  sees  them  in  the 
bush  and  in  the  forest,  I  communicated  with  the  editor 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  asking  him  whether  he 
would  give  the  hospitality  of  his  review  to  an  elaborate 
reply  to  the  views  of  one  of  the  most  prominent  Dar- 
winists ;  and  Mr.  James  Knowles  received  the  proposal 
with  fullest  sympathy.  I  also  spoke  of  it  to  W. 
Bates.  "  Yes,  certainly ;  that  is  true  Darwinism,"  was 
his  reply.  "  It  is  horrible  what  'they'  have  made  of 
Darwin.  Write  these  articles,  and  when  they  are 
printed,  I  will  write  to  you  a  letter  which  you  may 
publish."  Unfortunately,  it  took  me  nearly  seven 
years  to  write  these  articles,  and  when  the  last  was 
published,  Bates  was  no  longer  living. 

After  having  discussed  the  importance  of  mutual  aid 
in  various  classes  of  animals,  I  was  evidently  bound  to 
•  discuss  the  importance  of  the  same  factor  in  the  evolu- 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

tion  of  Man.  This  was  the  more  necessary  as  there 
are  a  number  of  evolutionists  who  may  not  refuse  to 
admit  the  importance  of  mutual  aid  among  animals,  but 
who,  like  Herbert  Spencer,  will  refuse  to  admit  it  for 
Man.  For  primitive  Man — they  maintain — war  of  each 
against  all  was  the  law  of  life.  In  how  far  this  assertion, 
which  has  been  too  willingly  repeated,  without  sufficient 
criticism,  since  the  times  of  Hobbes,  is  supported  by 
what  we  know  about  the  early  phases  of  human 
development,  is  discussed  in  the  chapters  given  to  the 
Savages  and  the  Barbarians. 

The  number  and  importance  of  mutual-aid  institu-f 
tions  which  were  developed  by  the  creative  genius  of 
the  savage  and  half-savage  masses,  during  the  earliest? 
clan-period  of  mankind  and  still  more  during  the  next; 
village-community  period,  and  the  immense  influence 
which  these  early  institutions  have  exercised  upon  the 
subsequent  development    of    mankind,   down    to   the 
present  times,  induced  me  to  extend  my  researches  to 
the  later,  historical  periods  as  well  ;  especially,  to  study 
that  most  interesting  period — the  free  mediaeval  city- 1 
republics,  of  which  the  universality  and  influence  upon  > 
our  modern  civilization  have  not  yet  been  duly  appre- 
ciated.    And  finally,  I  have  tried  to  indicate  in  brief 
the   immense   importance   which   the   mutual-support 
instincts,  inherited  by  mankind  from  its  extremely  long 
evolution,  play  even  now  in  our  modern  society,  which 
is  supposed  to  rest  upon  the  principle  :  "  every  one  for 
himself,  and  the  State  for  all,"  but  which  it  never  has 
succeeded,  nor  will  succeed  in  realizing. 

It  may  be  objected  to  this  book  that  both  animals 
and  men  are  represented  in  it  under  too  favourable  an 
aspect  ;  that  their  sociable  qualities  are  insisted  upon, 
while  their  anti-social  and  self-asserting  instincts  are 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

hardly  touched  upon.  This  was,  however,  unavoid- 
able. We  have  heard  so  much  lately  of  the  "  harsh, 
pitiless  struggle  for  life,"  which  was  said  to  be  carried 
on  by  every  animal  against  all  other  animals,  every 
"  savage "  against  all  other  "  savages,"  and  every 
civilized  man  against  all  his  co-citizens — and  these 
assertions  have  so  much  become  an  article  of  faith — 
that  it  was  necessary,  first  of  all,  to  oppose  to  them  a 
wide  series  of  facts  showing  animal  and  human  life 
under  a  quite  different  aspect.  It  was  necessary  to 
indicate  the  overwhelming  importance  which  sociable 
habits  play  in  Nature  and  in  the  progressive  evolution 
of  both  the  animal  species  and  human  beings  :  to  prove 
that  they  secure  to  animals  a  better  protection  from 
their  enemies,  very  often  facilities  for  getting  food 
(winter  provisions,  migrations,  etc.),  longevity,  and 
therefore  a  greater  facility  for  the  development  of 
intellectual  faculties  ;  and  that  they  have  given  to  men, 
in  addition  to  the  same  advantages,  the  possibility  of 
working  out  those  institutions  which  have  enabled 
mankind  to  survive  in  its  hard  struggle  against  Nature, 
and  to  progress,  notwithstanding  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
its  history.  It  is  a  book  on  the  law  of  Mutual  Aid, 
viewed  at  as  one  of  the  chief  factors  of  evolution — not 
on  all  factors  of  evolution  and  their  respective  values  ; 
and  this  first  book  had  to  be  written,  before  the  latter 
could  become  possible. 

I  should  certainly  be  the  last  to  underrate  the  part 
which  the  self-assertion  of  the  individual  has  played 
in  the  evolution  of  mankind.  However,  this  subject 
requires,  I  believe,  a  much  deeper  treatment  than  the 
one  it  has  hitherto  received.  In  the  history  of  man- 
kind, individual  self-assertion  has  often  been,  and  con- 
tinually is,  something  quite  different  from,  and  far 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

larger  and  deeper  than,  the  petty,  unintelligent  narrow- 
mindedness,  which,  with  a  large  class  of  writers,  goes 
for  "  individualism  "  and  "  self-assertion."  Nor  have 
history-making  individuals  been  limited  to  those  whom 
historians  have  represented  as  heroes.  My  intention, 
consequently,  is,  if  circumstances  permit  it,  to  discuss 
separately  the  part  taken  by  the  self-assertion  of  the 
individual  in  the  progressive  evolution  of  mankind.  I 
can  only  make  in  this  place  the  following  general 
remark  : — When  the  Mutual  Aid  institutions — the 
tribe,  the  village  community,  the  guilds,  the  mediaeval 
city — began,  in  the  course  of  history,  to  lose  their 
primitive  character,  to  be  invaded  by  parasitic  growths, 
and  thus  to  become  hindrances  to  progress,  the  revolt 
of  individuals  against  these  institutions  took  always 
two  different  aspects.  Part  of  those  who  rose  up 
strove  to  purify  the  old  institutions,  or  to  work  out  a 
higher  form  of  commonwealth,  based  upon  the  same 
Mutual  Aid  principles ;  they  tried,  for  instance,  to 
introduce  the  principle  of  "  compensation,"  instead  of 
the  lex  talionis,  and  later  on,  the  pardon  of  offences, 
or  a  still  higher  ideal  of  equality  before  the  human 
conscience,  in  lieu  of  "  compensation,"  according  to 
class-value.  But  at  the  very  same  time,  another 
portion  of  the  same  individual  rebels  endeavoured  to 
break  down  the  protective  institutions  of  mutual  sup- 
port, with  no  other  intention  but  to  increase  their  own 
wealth  and  their  own  powers.  In  this  three-cornered 
contest,  between  the  two  classes  of  revolted  individuals 
and  the  supporters  of  what  existed,  lies  the  real  tragedy 
of  history.  But  to  delineate  that  contest,  and  honestly 
to  study  the  part  played  in  the  evolution  of  mankind 
by  each  one  of  these  three  forces,  would  require  at  least 
as  many  years  as  it  took  me  to  write  this  book. 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

Of  works  dealing  with  nearly  the  same  subject 
which  have  been  published  since  the  publication  of  my 
articles  on  Mutual  Aid  among  Animals,  I  must  mention 
The  Lowell  Lectures  on  the  Ascent  of  Man,  by  Henry 
Drummond  (London,  1894),  and  The  Origin  and  Growth 
of  the  Moral  Instinct,  by  A.  Sutherland  (London, 
1898).  Both  are  constructed  chiefly  on  the  lines  taken 
in  Biichner's  Love,  and  in  the  second  work  the  parental 
and  familial  feeling  as  the  sole  influence  at  work 
in  the  development  of  the  moral  feelings  has  been 
dealt  with  at  some  length.  A  third  work  dealing  with 
man  and  written  on  similar  lines  is  The  Principles  of 
Sociology,  by  Prof.  F.  A.  Giddings,  the  first  edition 
of  which  was  published  in  1896  at  New  York  and 
London,  and  the  leading  ideas  of  which  were  sketched 
by  the  author  in  a  pamphlet  in  1894.  I  must  leave, 
however,  to  literary  critics  the  task  of  discussing  the 
points  of  contact,  resemblance,  or  divergence  between 
these  works  and  mine. 

The  different  chapters  of  this  book  were  published 
first  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  ("  Mutual  Aid  among 
Animals,"  in  September  and  November  1890; 
"Mutual  Aid  among  Savages,"  in  April  1891; 
"  Mutual  Aid  among  the  Barbarians,"  in  January 
1892  ;  "  Mutual  Aid  in  the  Mediaeval  City,"  in  August 
and  September  1894;  and  "Mutual  Aid  amongst 
Modern  Men,"  in  January  and  June  1896).  In 
bringing  them  out  in  a  book  form  my  first  intention 
was  to  embody  in  an  Appendix  the  mass  of  materials, 
as  well  as  the  discussion  of  several  secondary  points, 
which  had  to  be  omitted  in  the  review  articles.  It 
appeared,  however,  that  the  Appendix  would  double 
the  size  of  the  book,  and  I  was  compelled  to  abandon, 
or,  at  least,  to  postpone  its  publication.  The  present 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

Appendix  includes  the  discussion  of  only  a  few  points 
which  have  been  the  matter  of  scientific  controversy 
during  the  last  few  years ;  and  into  the  text  I  have 
introduced  only  such  matter  as  could  be  introduced 
without  altering  the  structure  of  the  work. 

I  am  glad  of  this  opportunity  for  expressing  to  the 
editor  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  Mr.  James  Knowles, 
my  very  best  thanks,  both  for  the  kind  hospitality 
which  he  offered  to  these  papers  in  his  review,  as  soon 
as  he  knew  their  general  idea,  and  the  permission  he 
kindly  gave  me  to  reprint  them. 

Bromley,  Kent) 
1902. 


CHAPTER   I 

MUTUAL    AID    AMONG    ANIMALS 

Struggle  for  existence. — Mutual  Aid — a  law  of  Nature  and  chief 
factor  of  progressive  evolution. — Invertebrates. — Ants  and  Bees. — 
Birds  :  Hunting  and  fishing  associations. — Sociability. — Mutual  pro- 
tection among  small  birds. — Cranes;  parrots. 

THE  conception  of  struggle  for  existence  as  a  factor 
of  evolution,  introduced  into  science  by  Darwin  and 
Wallace,  has  permitted  us  to  embrace  an  immensely- 
wide  range  of  phenomena  in  one  single  generalization, 
which  soon  became  the  very  basis  of  our  philosophical, 
biological,  and  sociological  speculations.  An  immense 
variety  of  facts  : — adaptations  of  function  and  structure 
of  organic  beings  to  their  surroundings ;  physiological 
and  anatomical  evolution  ;  intellectual  progress,  and 
moral  development  itself,  which  we  formerly  used  to 
explain  by  so  many  different  causes,  were  embodied 
by  Darwin  in  one  general  conception.  We  understood 
them  as  continued  endeavours — as  a  struggle  against 
adverse  circumstances — for  such  a  development  of 
individuals,  races,  species  and  societies,  as  would  result 
in  the  greatest  possible  fulness,  variety,  and  intensity  of 
life.  It  may  be  that  at  the  outset  Darwin  himself 
was  not  fully  aware  of  the  generality  of  the  factor 

B 


2  MUTUAL  AID 

which  he  first  invoked  for  explaining  one  series  only 
of  facts  relative  to  the  accumulation  of  individual 
variations  in  incipient  species.  But  he  foresaw  that 
the  term  which  he  was  introducing  into  science  would 
lose  its  philosophical  and  its  only  true  meaning  if  it 
were  to  be  used  in  its  narrow  sense  only — that  of  a 
struggle  between  separate  individuals  for  the  sheer 
means  of  existence.  And  at  the  very  beginning  of  his 
memorable  work  he  insisted  upon  the  term  being 
taken  in  its  "large  and  metaphorical  sense  including 
dependence  of  one  being  on  another,  and  including 
(which  is  more  important)  not  only  the  life  of  the 
individual,  but  success  in  leaving  progeny."1 

While  he  himself  was  chiefly  using  the  term  in  its 
narrow  sense  for  his  own  special  purpose,  he  warned 
his  followers  against  committing  the  error  (which  he 
seems  once  to  have  committed  himself)  of  overrating 
its  narrow  meaning.  In  The  Descent  of  Man  he  gave 
some  powerful  pages  to  illustrate  its  proper,  wide  sense. 
He  pointed  out  how,  in  numberless  animal  societies, 
the  struggle  between  separate  individuals  for  the  means 
of  existence  disappears,  how  struggle  is  replaced  by 
co-operation,  and  how  that  substitution  results  in  the 
development  of  intellectual  and  moral  faculties  which 
secure  to  the  species  the  best  conditions  for  survival. 
He  intimated  that  in  such  cases  the  fittest  are  not  the 
physically  strongest,  nor  the  cunningest,  but  those  who 
learn  to  combine  so  as  mutually  to  support  each  other, 
strong  and  weak  alike,  for  the  welfare  of  the  community. 
"Those  communities,"  he  wrote,  "which  included  the 
greatest  number  of  the  most  sympathetic  members 
would  flourish  best,  and  rear  the  greatest  number  of 
offspring"  (2nd  edit.,  p.  163).  The  term,  which 

1  Origin  of  Species,  chap.  iii. 


originated  from  the  narrow  Malthusian  conception  of 
competition  between  each  and  all,  thus  lost  its  narrow- 
ness in  the  mind  of  one  who  knew  Nature. 

Unhappily,  these  remarks,  which  might  have  become 
the  basis  of  most  fruitful  researches,  were  overshadowed 
by  the  masses  of  facts  gathered  for  the  purpose  of 
illustrating  the  consequences  of  a  real  competition  for 
life.  Besides,  Darwin  never  attempted  to  submit  to 
a  closer  investigation  the  relative  importance  of  the 
two  aspects  under  which  the  struggle  for  existence 
appears  in  the  animal  world,  and  he  never  wrote  the 
work  he  proposed  to  write  upon  the  natural  checks  to 
over-multiplication,  although  that  work  would  have 
been  the  crucial  test  for  appreciating  the  real  purport 
of  individual  struggle.  Nay,  on  the  very  pages  just 
mentioned,  amidst  data  disproving  the  narrow  Malthus- 
ian conception  of  struggle,  the  old  Malthusian  leaven 
reappeared — namely,  in  Darwin's  remarks  as  to  the 
alleged  inconveniences  of  maintaining  the  "  weak  in 
mind  and  body  "  in  our  civilized  societies  (ch.  v.).  As 
if  thousands  of  weak-bodied  and  infirm  poets,  scientists, 
inventors,  and  reformers,  together  with-  other  thousands 
of  so-called  "  fools  "  and  "  weak-minded  enthusiasts," 
were  not  the  most  precious  weapons  used  by  humanity 
in  its  struggle  for  existence  by  intellectual  and  moral 
arms,  which  Darwin  himself  emphasized  in  those  same 
chapters  of  Descent  of  Man. 

It  happened  with  Darwin's  theory  as  it  always 
happens  with  theories  having  any  bearing  upon  human 
relations.  Instead  of  widening  it  according  to  his  own 
hints,  his  followers  narrowed  it  still  more.  And  while 
Herbert  Spencer,  starting  on  independent  but  closely- 
allied  lines,  attempted  to  widen  the  inquiry  into  that 
great  question,  "  Who  are  the  fittest  ?  "  especially  in 


4  MUTUAL   AID 

the  appendix  to  the  third  edition  of  the  Data  of  Ethics, 
the  numberless  followers  of  Darwin  reduced  the  notion 
of  struggle  for  existence  to  its  narrowest  limits.  They 
came  to  conceive  the  animal  world  as  a  world  of  per- 
petual struggle  among  half-starved  individuals,  thirst- 
ing for  one  another's  blood.  They  made  modern 
literature  resound  with  the  war-cry  of  woe  to  the  van- 
quished, as  if  it  were  the  last  word  of  modern  biology. 
They  raised  the  "  pitiless  "  struggle  for  personal 
advantages  to  the  height  of  a  biological  principle 
which  man  must  submit  to  as  well,  under  the  menace 
of  otherwise  succumbing  in  a  world  based  upon  mutual 
extermination.  Leaving  aside  the  economists  who 
know  of  natural  science  but  a  few  words  borrowed  from 
second-hand  vulgarizers,  we  must  recognize  that  even 
the  most  authorized  exponents  of  Darwin's  views  did 
their  best  to  maintain  those  false  ideas.  In  fact,  if  we 
take  Huxley,  who  certainly  is  considered  as  one  of  the 
ablest  exponents  of  the  theory  of  evolution,  were  we 
not  taught  by  him,  in  a  paper  on  the  '  Struggle  for 
Existence  and  its  Bearing  upon  Man,'  that, 

"  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  moralist,  the  animal  world  is 
on  about  the  same  level  as  a  gladiators'  show.  The  creatures 
are  fairly  well  treated,  and  set  to  fight ;  whereby  the  strongest, 
the  swiftest,  and  the  cunningest  live  to  fight  another  day. 
The  spectator  has  no  need  to  turn  his  thumb  down,  as  no 
;  quarter  is  given." 

Or,  further  down  in  the  same  article,  did  he  not  tell 
us  that,  as  among  animals,  so  among  primitive  men, 

1  "the  weakest  and  stupidest  went  to  the  wall,  while  the 
toughest  and  shrewdest,  those  who  were  best  fitted  to  cope 
with  their  circumstances,  but  not  the  best  in  another  way, 
survived.  Life  was  a  continuous  free  fight,  and  beyond  the 
limited  and  temporary  relations  of  the  family,  the  Hobbesian 
war  of  each  against  all  was  the  normal  state  of  existence."  1 

1  Nineteenth  Century,  Feb.  1888,  p.  165. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  5 

In  how  far  this  view  of  nature  is  supported  by  fact, 
will  be  seen  from  the  evidence  which  will  be  here  sub- 
mitted to  the  reader  as  regards  the  animal  world,  and 
as  regards  primitive  man.  But  it  may  be  remarked  at 
once  that  Huxley's  view  of  nature  had  as  little 
claim  to  be  taken  as  a  scientific  deduction  as  the 
opposite  view  of  Rousseau,  who  saw  in  nature  but 
love,  peace,  and  harmony  destroyed  by  the  accession 
of  man.  In  fact,  the  first  walk  in  the  forest,  the  first 
observation  upon  any  animal  society,  or  even  the 
perusal  of  any  serious  work  dealing  with  animal  life 
(D'Orbigny's,  Audubon's,  Le  Vaillant's,  no  matter 
which),  cannot  but  set  the  naturalist  thinking  about 
the  part  taken  by  social  life  in  the  life  of  animals,  and 
prevent  him  from  seeing  in  Nature  nothing  but  a  field 
of  slaughter,  just  as  this  would  prevent  him  from 
seeing  in  Nature  nothing  but  harmony  and  peace. 
Rousseau  had  committed  the  error  of  excluding  the 
beak-and-claw  fight  from  his  thoughts  ;  and  Huxley 
committed  the  opposite  error  ;  but  neither  Rousseau's  i 
optimism  nor  Huxley's  pessimism  can  be  accepted  as,| 
an  impartial  interpretation  of  nature. 

As  soon  as  we  study  animals — not  in  laboratories 
and  museums  only,  but  in  the  forest  and  the  prairie, 
in  the  steppe  and  the  mountains — we  at  once  perceive 
that  though  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  warfare 
and  extermination  going  on  amidst  various  species, 
and  especially  amidst  various  classes  of  animals,  there 
is,  at  the  same  time,  as  much,  or  perhaps  even  more, 
of  mutual  support,  mutual  aid,  and  mutual  defence 
amidst  animals  belonging  to  the  same  species  or,  at 
least,  to  the  same  society.  Sociability  is  as  much  a 
law  of  nature  as  mutual  struggle.  Of  course  it  would 
be  extremely  difficult  to  estimate,  however  roughly, 


6  MUTUAL  AID 

the  relative  numerical  importance  of  both  these  series 
of  facts.  But  if  we  resort  to  an  indirect  test,  and  ask 
Nature :  "  Who  are  the  fittest :  those  who  are  con- 
tinually at  war  with  each  other,  or  those  who  support 
one  another  ? "  we  at  once  see  that  those  animals 
which  acquire  habits  of  mutual  aid  are  undoubtedly 
the  fittest.  They  have  more  chances  to  survive,  and 
they  attain,  in  their  respective  classes,  the  highest 
development  of  intelligence  and  bodily  organization. 
If  the  numberless  facts  which  can  be  brought  forward 
to  support  this  view  are  taken  into  account,  we  may 
safely  say  that  mutual  aid  is  as  much  a  law  of  animal 
life  as  mutual  struggle,  but  that,  as  a  factor  of  evolution, 
it  most  probably  has  a  far  greater  importance,  inas- 
much as  it  favours  the  development  of  such  habits  and 
characters  as  insure  the  maintenance  and  further 
development  of  the  species,  together  with  the  greatest 
amount  of  welfare  and  enjoyment  of  life  for  the 
individual,  with  the  least  waste  of  energy. 

Of  the  scientific  followers  of  Darwin,  the  first,  as  far 
as  I  know,  who  understood  the  full  purport  of  Mutual 
Aid  as  a  law  of  Nature  and  the  chief  factor  of  evolution, 
was  a  well-known  Russian  zoologist,  the  late  Dean  of 
the  St.  Petersburg  University,  Professor  Kessler.  He 
developed  his  ideas  in  an  address  which  he  delivered 
in  January  1880,  a  few  months  before  his  death,  at 
a  Congress  of  Russian  naturalists  ;  but,  like  so  many 
good  things  published  in  the  Russian  tongue  only, 
that  remarkable  address  remains  almost  entirely  un- 
known.1 

1  Leaving  aside  the  pre-Darwinian  writers,  like  Toussenel,  Fee, 
and  many  others,  several  works  containing  many  striking  instances 
of  mutual  aid — chiefly,  however,  illustrating  animal  intelligence — 
were  issued  previously  to  that  date.  I  may  mention  those  of 
Houzeau,  Les  facultes  mentales  des  ammaux,  2  vols.,  Brussels,  1872; 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  7 

"As  a  zoologist  of  old  standing,"  he  felt  bound  to 
protest  against  the  abuse  of  a  term — the  struggle  for 
existence — borrowed  from  zoology,  or,  at  least,  against 
overrating  its  importance.  Zoology,  he  said,  and 
those  sciences  which  deal  with  man,  continually  insist 
upon  what  they  call  the  pitiless  law  of  struggle  for 
existence.  But  they  forget  the  existence  of  another 
law  which  may  be  described  as  the  law  of  mutual  aid, 
which  law,  at  least  for  the  animals,  is  far  more  essential 
than  the  former.  He  pointed  out  how  the  need  of 
leaving  progeny  necessarily  brings  animals  together, 
and,  "the  more  the  individuals  keep  together,  the 
more  they  mutually  support  each  other,  and  the  more 
are  the  chances  of  the  species  for  surviving,  as  well  as 
for  making  further  progress  in  its  intellectual  develop- 
ment." "All  classes  of  animals,"  he  continued,  "and 
especially  the  higher  ones,  practise  mutual  aid,"  and 
he  illustrated  his  idea  by  examples  borrowed  from  the 
life  of  the  burying  beetles  and  the  social  life  of  birds 
and  some  mammalia.  The  examples  were  few,  as 

L.  Biichner's  Aus  dem  Geistesleben  der  Thiere,  2nd  ed.  in  1877;  and 
Maximilian  Party's  Ueber  das  Seelenleben  der  Thiere,  Leipzig,  1876. 
Espinas  published  his  most  remarkable  work,  Les  Societes  animates, 
in  1877,  and  in  that  work  he  pointed  out  the  importance  of  animal 
societies,  and  their  bearing  upon  the  preservation  of  species,  and 
entered  upon  a  most  valuable  discussion  of  the  origin  of  societies. 
In  fact,  Espinas's  book  contains  all  that  has  been  written  since  upon 
mutual  aid,  and  many  good  things  besides.  If  I  nevertheless  make 
a  special  mention  of  Kessler's  address,  it  is  because  he  raised  mutual 
aid  to  the  height  of  a  law  much  more  important  in  evolution  than 
the  law  of  mutual  struggle.  The  same  ideas  were  developed  next 
year  (in  April  1881)  by  J.  Lanessan  in  a  lecture  published  in  1882 
under  this  title  :  La  lutte  pour  F  existence  et  F  association  pour  la  lutte. 
G.  Romanes's  capital  work,  Animal  Intelligence,  was  issued  in  1882, 
and  followed  next  year  by  the  Mental  Evolution  in  Animals.  About 
the  same  time  (1883),  Biichner  published  another  work,  Liebe  und 
Liebes-Leben  in  der  Thierwelt,  a  second  edition  of  which  was  issued 
in  1885.  The  idea,  as  seen,  was  in  the  air. 


8  MUTUAL   AID 

might  have  been  expected  in  a  short  opening  address, 
but  the  chief  points  were  clearly  stated  ;  and,  after 
mentioning  that  in  the  evolution  of  mankind  mutual 
aid  played  a  still  more  prominent  part,  Professor 
Kessler  concluded  as  follows : — 

"  I  obviously  do  not  deny  the  struggle  for  existence,  but  I 
maintain  that  the  progressive  development  of  the  animal 
kingdom,  and  especially  of  mankind,  is  favoured  much  more 
by  mutual  support  than  by  mutual  struggle.  .  ,  .  All  organic 
beings  have  two  essential  needs :  that  of  nutrition,  and  that 
of  propagating  the  species.  The  former  brings  them  to  a 
struggle  and  to  mutual  extermination,  while  the  needs  of 
maintaining  the  species  bring  them  to  approach  one  another 
and  to  support  one  another.  But  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
in  the  evolution  of  the  organic  world — in  the  progressive 
modification  of  organic  beings — mutual  support  among  indi- 
viduals plays  a  much  more  important  part  than  their  mutual 
struggle."  l 

The  correctness  of  the  above  views  struck  most  of 
the  Russian  zoologists  present,  and  Syevertsoff,  whose 
work  is  well  known  to  ornithologists  and  geographers, 
supported  them  and  illustrated  them  by  a  few  more 
examples.  He  mentioned  some  of  the  species  of 
!  falcons  which  have  "  an  almost  ideal  organization  for 
robbery,"  and  nevertheless  are  in  decay,  while  other 
species  of  falcons,  which  practise  mutual  help,  do 
thrive.  "  Take,  on  the  other  side,  a  sociable  bird,  the 
duck,"  he  said ;  "  it  is  poorly  organized  on  the  whole, 
but  it  practises  mutual  support,  and  it  almost  invades 
the  earth,  as  may  be  judged  from  its  numberless 
varieties  and  species." 

The  readiness  of  the  Russian  zoologists  to  accept 
Kessler's  views  seems  quite  natural,  because  nearly 
all  of  them  have  had  opportunities  of  studying  the 

1  Memoirs  (Trudy)  of  the  St.  Petersburg  Society  of  Naturalists, 
vol.  xi.  1880. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  9 

animal  world  in  the  wide  uninhabited  regions  of 
Northern  Asia  and  East  Russia  ;  and  it  is  impossible 
to  study  like  regions  without  being  brought  to  the 
same  ideas.  I  recollect  myself  the  impression  pro- 
duced upon  me  by  the  animal  world  of  Siberia  when 
I  explored  the  Vitim  regions  in  the  company  of  so 
accomplished  a  zoologist  as  my  friend  Polyakoff  was. 
We  both  were  under  the  fresh  impression  of  the 
Origin  of  Species,  but  we  vainly  looked  for  the  keen 
competition  between  animals  of  the  same  species  which 
the  reading  of  Darwin's  work  had  prepared  us  to 
expect,  even  after  taking  into  account  the  remarks  of 
the  third  chapter  (p.  54).  We  saw  plenty  of  adapt- 
ations for  struggling,  very  often  in  common,  against 
the  adverse  circumstances  of  climate,  or  against  various 
enemies,  and  Polyakoff  wrote  many  a  good  page  upon 
the  mutual  dependency  of  carnivores,  ruminants,  and 
rodents  in  their  geographical  distribution  ;  we  wit- 
nessed numbers  of  facts  of  mutual  support,  especially 
during  the  migrations  of  birds  and  ruminants ;  but  even 
in  the  Amur  and  Usuri  regions,  where  animal  life 
swarms  in  abundance,  facts  of  real  competition  and 
struggle  between  higher  animals  of  the  same  species 
came  very  seldom  under  my  notice,  though  I  eagerly 
searched  for  them.  The  same  impression  appears  in 
the  works  of  most  Russian  zoologists,  and  it  probably 
explains  why  Kessler's  ideas  were  so  welcomed  by 
the  Russian  Darwinists,  whilst  like  ideas  are  not  in 
vogue  amidst  the  followers  of  Darwin  in  Western 
Europe. 

The  first  thing  which  strikes  us  as  soon  as  we  begin 
studying  the  struggle  for  existence  under  both  its 
aspects — direct  and  metaphorical — is  the  abundance 


io  MUTUAL   AID 

of  facts  of  mutual  aid,  not  only  for  rearing  progeny, 
as  recognized  by  most  evolutionists,  but  also  for  the 
safety  of  the  individual,  and  for  providing  it  with  the 
necessary  food.  With  many  large  divisions  of  the 
animal  kingdom  mutual  aid  is  the  rule.  Mutual  aid 
is  met  with  even  amidst  the  lowest  animals,  and  we 
must  be  prepared  to  learn  some  day,  from  the  students 
of  microscopical  pond-life,  facts  of  unconscious  mutual 
support,  even  from  the  life  of  micro-organisms.  Of 
course,  our  knowledge  of  the  life  of  the  invertebrates, 
save  the  termites,  the  ants,  and  the  bees,  is  extremely 
limited  ;  and  yet,  even  as  regards  the  lower  animals, 
we  may  glean  a  few  facts  of  well-ascertained  co- 
operation. The  numberless  associations  of  locusts, 
vanessse,  cicindelse,  cicadse,  and  so  on,  are  practically 
quite  unexplored  ;  but"  the  very  fact  of  their  existence 
indicates  that  they  must  be  composed  on  about  the 
same  principles  as  the  temporary  associations  of  ants 
or  bees  for  purposes  of  migration.1  As  to  the  beetles, 
we  have  quite  well-observed  facts  of  mutual  help 
amidst  the  burying  beetles  (Necrophorus].  They  must 
have  some  decaying  organic  matter  to  lay  their  eggs 
in,  and  thus  to  provide  their  larvse  with  food  ;  but  that 
matter  must  not  decay  very  rapidly-  So  they  are 
wont  to  bury  in  the  ground  the  corpses  of  all  kinds 
of  small  animals  which  they  occasionally  find  in  their 
rambles.  As  a  rule,  they  live  an  isolated  life,  but 
when  one  of  them  has  discovered  the  corpse  of  a 
mouse  or  of  a  bird,  which  it  hardly  could  manage  to 
bury  itself,  it  calls  four,  six,  or  ten  other  beetles  to 
perform  the  operation  with  united  efforts  ;  if  necessary, 
,they  transport  the  corpse  to  a  suitable  soft  ground  ; 
and  they  bury  it  in  a  very  considerate  way,  without 
1  See  Appendix  I. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  11 

quarrelling  as  to  which  of  them  will  enjoy  the  privilege 
of  laying  its  eggs  in  the  buried  corpse.  And  when 
Gleditsch  attached  a  dead  bird  to  a  cross  made  out  of 
two  sticks,  or  suspended  a  toad  to  a  stick  planted  in 
the  soil,  the  little  beetles  would  in  the  same  friendly 
way  combine  their  intelligences  to  overcome  the  artifice 
of  Man.  The  same  combination  of  efforts  has  been 
noticed  among  the  dung-beetles. 

Even  among  animals  standing  at  a  somewhat  lower 
stage  of  organization  we  may  find  like  examples. 
Some  land-crabs  of  the  West  Indies  and  North 
America  combine  in  large  swarms  in  order  to  travel 
to  the  sea  and  to  deposit  therein  their  spawn ;  and 
each  such  migration  implies  concert,  co-operation,  and 
mutual  support.  As  to  the  big  Molucca  crab  (Limulus), 
I  was  struck  (in  1882,  at  the  Brighton  Aquarium)  with 
the  extent  of  mutual  assistance  which  these  clumsy 
animals  are  capable  of  bestowing  upon  a  comrade  in 
case  of  need.  One  of  them  had  fallen  upon  its  back 
in  a  corner  of  the  tank,  and  its  heavy  saucepan-like 
carapace  prevented  it  from  returning  to  its  natural 
position,  the  more  so  as  there  was  in  the  corner  an 
iron  bar  which  rendered  the  task  still  more  difficult. 
Its  comrades  came  to  the  rescue,  and  for  one  hour's 
time  I  watched  how  they  endeavoured  to  help  their 
fellow-prisoner.  They  came  two  at  once,  pushed  their 
friend  from  beneath,  and  after  strenuous  efforts  suc- 
ceeded in  lifting  it  upright ;  but  then  the  iron  bar 
would  prevent  them  from  achieving  the  work  of  rescue, 
and  the  crab  would  again  heavily  fall  upon  its  back. 
After  many  attempts,  one  of  the  helpers  would  go  in 
the  depth  of  the  tank  and  bring  two  other  crabs,  which 
would  begin  with  fresh  forces  the  same  pushing  and 
lifting  of  their  helpless  comrade.  We  stayed  in  the 


12  MUTUAL  AID 

Aquarium  for  more  than  two  hours,  and,  when  leaving-, 
we  again  came  to  cast  a  glance  upon  the  tank :  the 
work  of  rescue  still  continued !  Since  I  saw  that,  I 
cannot  refuse  credit  to  the  observation  quoted  by  Dr. 
Erasmus  Darwin — namely,  that  "  the  common  crab 
during  the  moulting  season  stations  as  sentinel  an 
unmoulted  or  hard-shelled  individual  to  prevent  marine 
enemies  from  injuring  moulted  individuals  in  their 
unprotected  state."  l 

Facts  illustrating  mutual  aid  amidst  the  termites,  the 
ants,  and  the  bees  are  so  well  known  to  the  general 
reader,  especially  through  the  works  of  Romanes, 
L.  Btichner,  and  Sir  John  Lubbock,  that  I  may  limit 
my  remarks  to  a  very  few  hints.2  If  we  take  an  ants' 
nest,  we  not  only  see  that  every  description  of  work — 
rearing  of  progeny,  foraging,  building,  rearing  of 
aphides,  and  so  on — is  performed  according  to  the 
principles  of  voluntary  mutual  aid ;  we  must  also 
recognize,  with  Forel,  that  the  chief,  the  fundamental 
feature  of  the  life  of  many  species  of  ants  is  the  fact 
and  the  obligation  for  every  ant  of  sharing  its  food, 
already  swallowed  and  partly  digested,  with  every 
member  of  the  community  which  may  apply  for  it. 
Two  ants  belonging  to  two  different  species  or  to  two 
hostile  nests,  when  they  occasionally  meet  together, 
will  avoid  each  other.  But  two  ants  belonging  to  the 
same  nest  or  to  the  same  colony  of  nests  will  approach 

1  George  J.  Romanes's  Animal  Intelligence,  ist  ed.  p.  233. 

2  Pierre  Huberts  Recherches  sur  les  fourmis,  Ge'neve,  1810 ;   re- 
printed as  Les  fourmis  indigenes,  Ge'neve,  1861 ;  Forel's  Recherches 
sur  les  fourmis  de  la  Suisse,  Zurich,  1874,  and  J.  T.  Moggridge's  Har- 
vesting Ants  and  Trapdoor  Spiders,  London,  1873  and  1874,  ought  to 
be  in  the  hands  of  every  boy  and  girl.     See  also  :  Blanchard's  Meta- 
morphoses des  Insectes,  Paris,  1868;  J.  H.  Fabre's  Souvenirs  entornolo- 
giques,  Paris,  1886;  Ebrard's  Etudes  des  moeurs  des  fourmis,  Ge'neve, 
1864;  Sir  John  Lubbock's  Ants,  Bees,  and  Wasps,  and  so  on. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  13 

each  other,  exchange  a  few  movements  with  the 
antennae,  and  "  if  one  of  them  is  hungry  or  thirsty, 
and  especially  if  the  other  has  its  crop  full  ...  it 
immediately  asks  for  food."  The  individual  thus 
requested  never  refuses ;  it  sets  apart  its  mandibles, 
takes  a  proper  position,  and  regurgitates  a  drop  of 
transparent  fluid  which  is  licked  up  by  the  hungry 
ant.  Regurgitating  food  for  other  ants  is  so  prominent 
a  feature  in  the  life  of  ants  (at  liberty),  and  it  so 
constantly  recurs  both  for  feeding  hungry  comrades 
and  for  feeding  larvae,  that  Forel  considers  the  di- 
gestive tube  of  the  ants  as  consisting  of  two  different 
parts,  one  of  which,  the  posterior,  is  for  the  special  use 
of  the  individual,  and  the  other,  the  anterior  part,  is 
chiefly  for  the  use  of  the  community.  If  an  ant  which 
has  its  crop  full  has  been  selfish  enough  to  refuse 
feeding  a  comrade,  it  will  be  treated  as  an  enemy,  or 
even  worse.  If  the  refusal  has  been  made  while  its 
kinsfolk  were  fighting  with  some  other  species,  they 
will  fall  back  upon  the  greedy  individual  with  greater 
vehemence  than  even  upon  the  enemies  themselves. 
And  if  an  ant  has  not  refused  to  feed  another  ant 
belonging  to  an  enemy  species,  it  will  be  treated  by 
the  kinsfolk  of  the  latter  as  a  friend.  All  this  is  con- 
firmed by  most  accurate  observation  and  decisive 
experiments.1 

In  that  immense  division  of  the  animal  kingdom 
which  embodies  more  than  one  thousand  species,  and 
is  so  numerous  that  the  Brazilians  pretend  that  Brazil 
belongs  to  the  ants,  not  to  men,  competition  amidst 
the  members  of  the  same  nest,  or  the  colony  of  nests, 

1  Forel's  Recherches,  pp.  244,  275,  278.  Huber's  description  of 
the  process  is  admirable.  It  also  contains  a  hint  as  to  the  possible 
origin  of  the  instinct  (popular  edition,  pp.  158,  160).  See 
Appendix  II. 


14  MUTUAL   AID 

does  not  exist.  However  terrible  the  wars  between 
different  species,  and  whatever  the  atrocities  committed 
at  war-time,  mutual  aid  within  the  community,  self- 
devotion  grown  into  a  habit,  and  very  often  self- 
sacrifice  for  the  common  welfare,  are  the  rule.  The 
ants  and  termites  have  renounced  the  "  Hobbesian 
war,"  and  they  are  the  better  for  it.  Their  wonderful 
nests,  their  buildings,  superior  in  relative  size  to  those 
of  man ;  their  paved  roads  and  overground  vaulted 
galleries ;  their  spacious  halls  and  granaries ;  their 
corn-fields,  harvesting  and  "malting"  of  grain  ;l  their 
rational  methods  of  nursing  their  eggs  and  larvae,  and 
of  building  special  nests  for  rearing  the  aphides  whom 
Linnaeus  so  picturesquely  described  as  "  the  cows  of 
the  ants "  ;  and,  finally,  their  courage,  pluck,  and 
superior  intelligence — all  these  are  the  natural  outcome 
of  the  mutual  aid  which  they  practise  at  every  stage  of 
their  busy  and  laborious  lives.  That  mode  of  life  also 
necessarily  resulted  in  the  development  of  another 
essential  feature  of  the  life  of  ants :  the  immense 
development  of  individual  initiative  which,  in  its  turn, 
evidently  led  to  the  development  of  that  high  and 
varied  intelligence  which  cannot  but  strike  the  human 
observer.2 

If  we  knew  no  other  facts  from  animal  life  than  what 

1  The  agriculture  of  the  ants  is  so  wonderful  that  for  a  long  time 
it   has  been   doubted.     The  fact   is  now  so  well  proved  by  Mr. 
Moggridge,   Dr.  Lincecum,    Mr.    MacCook,    Col.    Sykes,   and   Dr. 
Jerdon,  that  no  doubt  is  possible.     See  an  excellent  summary  of 
evidence  in  Mr.  Romanes's  work.     See  also  Die  Pilzgaerten  einiger 
Sud-Amerikanischen  Ameisen,  by  Alf.  Moeller,  in  Schimper's  Botan. 
Mitth,  aus  den  Tropen,  vi.  1893. 

2  This  second   principle  was  not  recognized  at   once.     Former 
observers  often  spoke  of  kings,  queens,  managers,  and  so  on  ;  but 
since  Huber  and  Forel  have  published  their  minute  observations,  no 
doubt  is  possible  as  to  the  free  scope  left  for  every  individual's 
initiative  in  whatever  the  ants  do,  including  their  wars. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  15 

we  know  about  the  ants  and  the  termites,  we  already 
might  safely  conclude  that  mutual  aid  (which  leads  to 
mutual  confidence,  the  first  condition  for  courage)  and 
individual  initiative  (the  first  condition  for  intellectual 
progress)  are  two  factors  infinitely  more  important  than 
mutual  struggle  in  the  evolution  of  the  animal  kingdom. 
In  fact,  the  ant  thrives  without  having  any  of  the 
"protective"  features  which  cannot  be  dispensed  with 
by  animals  living  an  isolated  life.  Its  colour  renders  it 
conspicuous  to  its  enemies,  and  the  lofty  nests  of  many 
species  are  conspicuous  in  the  meadows  and  forests.  It 
is  not  protected  by  a  hard  carapace,  and  its  stinging 
apparatus,  however  dangerous  when  hundreds  of  stings 
are  plunged  into  the  flesh  of  an  animal,  is  not  of  a 
great  value  for  individual  defence ;  while  the  eggs  and 
larvae  of  the  ants  are  a  dainty  for  a  great  number  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  forests.  And  yet  the  ants,  in 
their  thousands,  are  not  much  destroyed  by  the  birds, 
not  even  by  the  ant-eaters,  and  they  are  dreaded  by 
most  stronger  insects.  When  Forel  emptied  a  bagful 
of  ants  in  a  meadow,  he  saw  that  "the  crickets  ran 
away,  abandoning  their  holes  to  be  sacked  by  the 
ants ;  the  grasshoppers  and  the  crickets  fled  in  all 
directions ;  the  spiders  and  the  beetles  abandoned 
their  prey  in  order  not  to  become  prey  themselves;" 
even  the  nests  of  the  wasps  were  taken  by  the  ants, 
after  a  battle  during  which  many  ants  perished  for  the 
safety  of  the  commonwealth.  Even  the  swiftest  insects 
cannot  escape,  and  Forel  often  saw  butterflies,  gnats, 
flies,  and  so  on,  surprised  and  killed  by  the  ants. 
Their  force  is  in  mutual  support  and  mutual  confidence. 
And  if  the  ant — apart  from  the  still  higher  developed 
termites — stands  at  the  very  top  of  the  whole  class  of 
insects  for  its  intellectual  capacities ;  if  its  courage  is 


16  MUTUAL  AID 

only  equalled  by  the  most  courageous  vertebrates  ;  and 
if  its  brain — to  use  Darwin's  words — "  is  one  of  the 
most  marvellous  atoms  of  matter  in  the  world,  perhaps 
more  so  than  the  brain  of  man,"  is  it  not  due  to  the 
fact  that  mutual  aid  has  entirely  taken  the  place  of 
mutual  struggle  in  the  communities  of  ants  ? 

The  same  is  true  as  regards  the  bees.  These  small 
insects,  which  so  easily  might  become  the  prey  of  so 
many  birds,  and  whose  honey  has  so  many  admirers  in 
all  classes  of  animals  from  the  beetle  to  the  bear,  also 
have  none  of  the  protective  features  derived  from 
mimicry  or  otherwise,  without  which  an  isolatedly- 
living  insect  hardly  could  escape  wholesale  destruction  ; 
and  yet,  owing  to  the  mutual  aid  they  practise,  they 
obtain  the  wide  extension  which  we  know  and  the 
intelligence  we  admire.  By  working  in  common  they 
multiply  their  individual  forces ;  by  resorting  to  a 
temporary  division  of  labour  combined  with  the  capacity 
of  each  bee  to  perform  every  kind  of  work  when 
required,  they  attain  such  a  degree  of  well-being  and 
safety  as  no  isolated  animal  can  ever  expect  to  achieve 
however  strong  or  well-armed  it  may  be.  In  their 
combinations  they  are  often  more  successful  than  man, 
when  he  neglects  to  take  advantage  of  a  well-planned 
mutual  assistance.  Thus,  when  a  new  swarm  of 
bees  is  going  to  leave  the  hive  in  search  of  a  new 
abode,  a  number  of  bees  will  make  a  preliminary 
exploration  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  if  they  discover 
a  convenient  dwelling-place — say,  an  old  basket,  or 
anything  of  the  kind — they  will  take  possession  of  it, 
clean  it,  and  guard  it,  sometimes  for  a  whole  week, 
till  the  swarm  comes  to  settle  therein.  But  how  many 
human  settlers  will  perish  in  new  countries  simply  for 
not  having  understood  the  necessity  of  combining  their 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  17 

efforts !  By  combining  their  individual  intelligences 
they  succeed  in  coping  with  adverse  circumstances, 
even  quite  unforeseen  and  unusual,  like  those  bees  of 
the  Paris  Exhibition  which  fastened  with  their  resinous 
propolis  the  shutter  to  a  glass-plate  fitted  in  the  wall 
of  their  hive.  Besides,  they  display  none  of  the 
sanguinary  proclivities  and  love  of  useless  fighting 
with  which  many  writers  so  readily  endow  animals. 
The  sentries  which  guard  the  entrance  to  the  hive 
pitilessly  put  to  death  the  robbing  bees  which  attempt 
entering  the  hive ;  but  those  stranger  bees  which 
come  to  the  hive  by  mistake  are  left  unmolested, 
especially  if  they  come  laden  with  pollen,  or  are  young 
individuals  which  can  easily  go  astray.  There  is  no 
more  warfare  than  is  strictly  required. 

The  sociability  of  the  bees  is  the  more  instructive  as 
predatory  instincts  and  laziness  continue  to  exist  among 
the  bees  as  well,  and  reappear  each  time  that  their 
growth  is  favoured  by  some  circumstances.  It  is  well 
known  that  there  always  are  a  number  of  bees  which 
prefer  a  life  of  robbery  to  the  laborious  life  of  a 
worker  ;  and  that  both  periods  of  scarcity  and  periods 
of  an  unusually  rich  supply  of  food  lead  to  an  increase 
of  the  robbing  class.  When  our  crops  are  in  and 
there  remains  but  little  to  gather  in  our  meadows  and 
fields,  robbing  bees  become  of  more  frequent  occur- 
rence ;  while,  on  the  other  side,  about  the  sugar  planta- 
tions of  the  West  Indies  and  the  sugar  refineries  of 
Europe,  robbery,  laziness,  and  very  often  drunkenness 
become  quite  usual  with  the  bees.  We  thus  see  that 
anti-social  instincts  continue  to  exist  amidst  the  bees  as 
well ;  but  natural  selection  continually  must  eliminate 
them,  because  in  the  long  run  the  practice  of  solidarity 
proves  much  more  advantageous  to  the  species  than 


i8  MUTUAL   AID 

the  development  of  individuals  endowed  with  predatory 
inclinations.  The  cunningest  and  the  shrewdest  are 
eliminated  in  favour  of  those  who  understand  the 
advantages  of  sociable  life  and  mutual  support. 

Certainly,  neither  the  ants,  nor  the  bees,  nor  even 
the  termites,  have  risen  to  the  conception  of  a  higher 
solidarity  embodying  the  whole  of  the  species.  In 
that  respect  they  evidently  have  not  attained  a  degree 
of  development  which  we  do  not  find  even  among  our 
political,  scientific,  and  religious  leaders.  Their  social 
instincts  hardly  extend  beyond  the  limits  of  the  hive 
or  the  nest.  However,  colonies  of  no  less  than  two 
hundred  nests,  belonging  to  two  different  species  {For- 
mica exsecta  and  F.  pressilabris]  have  been  described 
by  Forel  on  Mount  Tendre  and  Mount  Saleve ;  and 
Forel  maintains  that  each  member  of  these  colonies 
recognizes  every  other  member  of  the  colony,  and  that 
they  all  take  part  in  common  defence ;  while  in  Penn- 
sylvania Mr.  MacCook  saw  a  whole  nation  of  from 
i, 600  to  1,700  nests  of  the  mound-making  ant,  all  living 
in  perfect  intelligence ;  and  Mr.  Bates  has  described 
the  hillocks  of  the  termites  covering  large  surfaces  in 
the  "campos" — some  of  the  nests  being  the  refuge 
of  two  or  three  different  species,  and  most  of  them 
being  connected  by  vaulted  galleries  or  arcades.1 
Some  steps  towards  the  amalgamation  of  larger 
divisions  of  the  species  for  purposes  of  mutual  pro- 
tection are  thus  met  with  even  among  the  invertebrate 
animals. 

Going  now  over  to  higher  animals,  we  find  far  more 
instances  of  undoubtedly  conscious  mutual  help  for  all 
possible  purposes,  though  we  must  recognize  at  once 

1  H.  W.  Bates,  The  Naturalist  on  the  River  Amazons ;  ii.  59  seq. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  19 

that  our  knowledge  even  of  the  life  of  higher  animals 
still  remains  very  imperfect.  A  large  number  of  facts 
have  been  accumulated  by  first-rate  observers,  but 
there  are  whole  divisions  of  the  animal  kingdom  of 
which  we  know  almost  nothing.  Trustworthy  infor- 
mation as  regards  fishes  is  extremely  scarce,  partly 
owing  to  the  difficulties  of  observation,  and  partly 
because  no  proper  attention  has  yet  been  paid  to  the 
subject.  As  to  the  mammalia,  Kessler  already  re- 
marked how  little  we  know  about  their  manners  of 
life.  Many  of  them  are  nocturnal  in  their  habits  ; 
others  conceal  themselves  underground ;  and  those 
ruminants  whose  social  life  and  migrations  offer  the 
greatest  interest  do  not  let  man  approach  their  herds. 
It  is  chiefly  upon  birds  that  we  have  the  widest  range 
of  information,  and  yet  the  social  life  of  very  many 
species  remains  but  imperfectly  known.  Still,  we  need 
not  complain  about  the  lack  of  well-ascertained  facts, 
as  will  be  seen  from  the  following. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  associations  of  male  and 
female  for  rearing  their  offspring,  for  providing  it  with 
food  during  their  first  steps  in  life,  or  for  hunting  in 
common  ;  though  it  may  be  mentioned  by  the  way 
that  such  associations  are  the  rule  even  with  the  least 
sociable  carnivores  and  rapacious  birds  ;  and  that  they 
derive  a  special  interest  from  being  the  field  upon 
which  tenderer  feelings  develop  even  amidst  other- 
wise most  cruel  animals.  It  may  also  be  added  that 
the  rarity  of  associations  larger  than  that  of  the  family 
among  the  carnivores  and  the  birds  of  prey,  though 
mostly  being  the  result  of  their  very  modes  of  feeding, 
can  also  be  explained  to  some  extent  as  a  consequence 
of  the  change  produced  in  the  animal  world  by  the 
rapid  increase  of  mankind.  At  any  rate  it  is  worthy 


20  MUTUAL  AID 

of  note  that  there  are  species  living  a  quite  isolated 
life  in  densely-inhabited  regions,  while  the  same  species, 
or  their  nearest  congeners,  are  gregarious  in  unin- 
habited countries.  Wolves,  foxes,  and  several  birds 
of  prey  may  be  quoted  as  instances  in  point. 

However,  associations  which  do  not  extend  beyond 
the  family  bonds  are  of  relatively  small  importance  in 
our  case,  the  more  so  as  we  know  numbers  of  associ- 
ations for  more  general  purposes,  such  as  hunting, 
mutual  protection,  and  even  simple  enjoyment  of  life. 
Audubon  already  mentioned  that  eagles  occasionally 
associate  for  hunting,  and  his  description  of  the  two 
bald  eagles,  male  and  female,  hunting  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, is  well  known  for  its  graphic  powers.  But  one 
of  the  most  conclusive  observations  of  the  kind  belongs 
to  Syevertsoff.  Whilst  studying  the  fauna  of  the 
Russian  Steppes,  he  once  saw  an  eagle  belonging  to  an 
altogether  gregarious  species  (the  white-tailed  eagle, 
Haliaetos  albicilla)  rising  high  in  the  air ;  for  half-an- 
hour  it  was  describing  its  wide  circles  in  silence  when 
at  once  its  piercing  voice  was  heard.  Its  cry  was  soon 
answered  by  another  eagle  which  approached  it,  and 
was  followed  by  a  third,  a  fourth,  and  so  on,  till  nine  or 
ten  eagles  came  together  and  soon  disappeared.  In 
the  afternoon,  Syevertsoff  went  to  the  place  whereto 
he  saw  the  eagles  flying  ;  concealed  by  one  of  the 
undulations  of  the  Steppe,  he  approached  them,  and 
discovered  that  they  had  gathered  around  the  corpse  of 
a  horse.  The  old  ones,  which,  as  a  rule,  begin  the 
meal  first — such  are  their  rules  of  propriety — already 
were  sitting  upon  the  haystacks  of  the  neighbourhood 
and  kept  watch,  while  the  younger  ones  were  continu- 
ing the  meal,  surrounded  by  bands  of  crows.  From 
this  and  like  observations,  Syevertsoff  concluded  that 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  21 

the  white-tailed  eagles  combine  for  hunting ;  when 
they  all  have  risen  to  a  great  height  they  are  enabled, 
if  they  are  ten,  to  survey  an  area  of  at  least  twenty- 
five  miles  square  ;  and  as  soon  as  any  one  has  dis- 
covered something,  he  warns  the  others.1  Of  course, 
it  might  be  argued  that  a  simple  instinctive  cry  of  the 
first  eagle,  or  even  its  movements,  would  have  had  the 
same  effect  of  bringing  several  eagles  to  the  prey;  but 
in  this  case  there  is  strong  evidence  in  favour  of  mutual 
warning,  because  the  ten  eagles  came  together  before 
descending  towards  the  prey,  and  Syevertsoff  had  later 
on  several  opportunities  of  ascertaining  that  the  white- 
tailed  eagles  always  assemble  for  devouring  a  corpse, 
and  that  some  of  them  (the  younger  ones  first)  always 
keep  watch  while  the  others  are  eating.  In  fact,  the 
white-tailed  eagle — one  of  the  bravest  and  best  hunters 
— is  a  gregarious  bird  altogether,  and  Brehm  says  that 
when  kept  in  captivity  it  very  soon  contracts  an  attach- 
ment to  its  keepers. 

Sociability  is  a  common  feature  with  very  many 
other  birds  of  prey.  The  Brazilian  kite,  one  of  the 
most  "  impudent "  robbers,  is  nevertheless  a  most 
sociable  bird.  Its  hunting  associations  have  been 
described  by  Darwin  and  other  naturalists,  and  it  is! 
a  fact  that  when  it  has  seized  upon  a  prey  which  is  i 
too  big,  it  calls  together  five  or  six  friends  to  carry  it 
away.  After  a  busy  day,  when  these  kites  retire  for 
their  night-rest  to  a  tree  or  to  the  bushes,  they  always 
gather  in  bands,  sometimes  coming  together  from 
distances  of  ten  or  more  miles,  and  they  often  are 
joined  by  several  other  vultures,  especially  the  perc- 
nopters,  "their  true  friends,"  D'Orbigny  says.  In 

1  N.  Syevertsoff,  Periodical  Phenomena  in  the  Life  of  Mammalia* 
Birds,  and  Reptiles  of  Voroneje,  Moscow,  1855  (in  Russian). 


22  MUTUAL   AID 

another  continent,  in  the  Transcaspian  deserts,  they 
have,  according  to  Zarudnyi,  the  same  habit  of 
r  nesting  together.  The  sociable  vulture,  one  of  the 
)j  strongest  vultures,  has  received  its  very  name  from 
1  its  love  of  society.  They  live  in  numerous  bands, 
and  decidedly  enjoy  society  ;  numbers  of  them  join 
in  their  high  flights  for  sport.  "  They  live  in  very 
good  friendship,"  Le  Vaillant  says,  "and  in  the 
same  cave  I  sometimes  found  as  many  as  three 
nests  close  together."  1  The  Urubii  vultures  of 
Brazil  are  as,  or  perhaps  even  more,  sociable  than 
rooks.2  The  little  Egyptian  vultures  live  in  close 
friendship.  They  play  in  bands  in  the  air,  they  come 
together  to  spend  the  night,  and  in  the  morning  they 
all  go  together  to  search  for  their  food,  and  never  does 
the  slightest  quarrel  arise  among  them ;  such  is  the 
testimony  of  Brehm,  who  had  plenty  of  opportunities 
of  observing  their  life.  The  red-throated  falcon  is 
also  met  with  in  numerous  bands  in  the  forests  of 
Brazil,  and  the  kestrel  (Tinnunculus  cenchris],  when 
it  has  left  Europe,  and  has  reached  in  the  winter 
the  prairies  and  forests  of  Asia,  gathers  in  numerous 
societies.  In  the  Steppes  of  South  Russia  it  is  (or 
rather  was)  so  sociable  that  Nordmann  saw  them  in 
numerous  bands,  with  other  falcons  (Falco  tinnunculus, 
F.  cesulon,  and  F.  subbuteo),  coming  together  every 
fine  afternoon  about  four  o'clock,  and  enjoying  their 
sports  till  late  in  the  night.  They  set  off  flying,  all  at 
once,  in  a  quite  straight  line,  towards  some  determined 
point,  and,  having  reached  it,  immediately  returned 
over  the  same  line,  to  repeat  the  same  flight.3 

1  A.  Brehm,  Life  of  Animals,  iii.  477 ;    all  quotations  after  the 
French  edition.  2  Bates,  p.  151. 

3  Catalogue  raisonn'e  des  oiseaux  de  la  faune  pontique,  in  Demidoff  s 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  23 

To  take  flights  in  flocks  for  the  mere  pleasure  of 
the  flight,  is  quite  common  among  all  sorts  of  birds. 
"In  the  Humber  district  especially,"  Ch.  Dixon 
writes,  "  vast  flights  of  dunlins  often  appear  upon  the 
mud-flats  towards  the  end  of  August,  and  remain  for 
the  winter.  .  .  .  The  movements  of  these  birds  are 
most  interesting,  as  a  vast  flock  wheels  and  spreads 
out  or  closes  up  with  as  much  precision  as  drilled 
troops.  Scattered  among  them  are  many  odd  stints 
and  sanderlings  and  ringed-plovers."  1 

It  would  be  quite  impossible  to  enumerate  here  the 
various  hunting  associations  of  birds ;  but  the  fishing' 
associations    of  the   pelicans   are  certainly  worthy  of) 
notice  for  the  remarkable  order  and  intelligence  dis-; 
played  by  these  clumsy  birds.    They  always  go  fishing 
in    numerous    bands,    and    after    having    chosen    an 
appropriate  bay,  they  form  a  wide  half-circle  in  face' 
of  the  shore,  and  narrow  it  by  paddling  towards  the 
shore,  catching  all  fish  that  happen  to  be  enclosed  in 
the  circle.     On  narrow  rivers  and   canals   they  even 
divide  into  two  parties,  each  of  which  draws  up  on  a 
half-circle,  and  both  paddle  to  meet  each  other,  just  as 
if  two  parties  of  men  dragging  two  long  nets  should 
advance  to  capture  all  fish   taken   between  the  nets 
when  both  parties  come  to  meet.     As  the  night  comes 
they  fly  to  their  resting-places — always  the  same  for 
each  flock — and  no  one  has  ever  seen  them  fighting 
for  the  possession  of  either  the  bay  or  the  resting- 
place.      In    South    America   they  gather  in  flocks  of 


Voyage  ;  abstracts  in  Brehm,  iii.  360.     During  their  migrations  birds 
of  prey  often  associate.     One  flock,  which  H.  Seebohm  saw  crossing 
the  Pyrenees,  represented  a  curious  assemblage  of  "  eight  kites,  one 
crane,  and  a  peregrine  falcon"  (The  Birds  of  Siberia^  1901,  p.  417). 
1  Birds  in  the  Northern  Shires,  p.  207. 


24  MUTUAL  AID 

from  forty  to  fifty  thousand  individuals,  part  of  which 
enjoy  sleep  while  the  others  keep  watch,  and  others 
^again  go  fishing.1  And  finally,  I  should  be  doing  an 
'injustice  to  the  much-calumniated  house-sparrows  if  I 
:did  not  mention  how  faithfully  each  of  them  shares 
any  food  it  discovers  with  all  members  of  the  society 
/to  which  it  belongs.  The  fact  was  known  to  the 
Greeks,  and  it  has  been  transmitted  to  posterity  how  a 
Greek  orator  once  exclaimed  (I  quote  from  memory):— 
"  While  I  am  speaking  to  you  a  sparrow  has  come  to 
tell  to  other  sparrows  that  a  slave  has  dropped  on  the 
floor  a  sack  of  corn,  and  they  all  go  there  to  feed  upon 
the  grain."  The  more,  one  is  pleased  to  find  this 
observation  of  old  confirmed  in  a  recent  little  book  by 
Mr.  Gurney,  who  does  not  doubt  that  the  house- 
sparrows  always  inform  each  other  as  to  where  there 
is  some  food  to  steal ;  he  says,  "  When  a  stack  has 
been  thrashed  ever  so  far  from  the  yard,  the  sparrows 
in  the  yard  have  always  had  their  crops  full  of  the 
grain."  2  True,  the  sparrows  are  extremely  particular 
in  keeping  their  domains  free  from  the  invasions  of 
Strangers  ;  thus  the  sparrows  of  the  Jardin  du  Luxem- 
bourg bitterly  fight  all  other  sparrows  which  may 
attempt  to  enjoy  their  turn  of  the  garden  and  its 
visitors  ;  but  within  their  own  communities  they  fully 
practise  mutual  support,  though  occasionally  there  will 
be  of  course  some  quarrelling  even  amongst  the  best 
friends. 

Hunting  and  feeding  in  common  is  so  much  the 
habit  in  the  feathered  world  that  more  quotations 
hardly  would  be  needful :  it  must  be  considered  as  an 

1  Max.  Perty,  Ueber  das  Seehnleben  der  Thiere  (Leipzig,  1876),  pp. 
87,  103. 

2  G.  H.  Gurney,  The  House-Sparrow  (London,  1885),  p.  5.          < 


MUTUAL   AID  AMONG   ANIMALS  25 

established  fact.     As  to  the  force  derived  from  such 
associations,  it  is  self-evident.     The  strongest  birds  of 
prey  are  powerless  in  face  of  the  associations  of  our 
smallest  bird  pets.     Even  eagles — even  the  powerful 
and  terrible  booted  eagle,  and  the  martial  eagle,  which 
is  strong  enough    to  carry  away  a   hare  or  a  young 
antelope  in  its  claws — are  compelled  to  abandon  their 
prey  to  bands  of  those  beggars  the  kites,  which  give 
the  eagle  a  regular  chase  as  soon  as  they  see  it   in 
possession  of  a  good  prey.     The  kites  will  also  give 
chase   to   the   swift   fishing-hawk,  and   rob   it  of  the 
fish  it  has  captured  ;  but  no  one  ever  saw  the  kites 
fighting   together  for   the  possession  of  the  prey  so 
stolen.    *On  the  Kerguelen  Island,  Dr.  Coues  saw  the 
Buphagus — the  sea-hen  of  the  sealers — pursue  gulls  to 
make  them   disgorge  their  food,  while,  on  the  other 
side,  the  gulls  and  the  terns  combined  to  drive  away 
the  sea-hen  as  soon  as  it  came  near  to  their  abodes, 
especially  at  nesting-time.1     The  little,  but  extremely 
swift  lapwings  (Vanellus  cristatus)  boldly  attack   the 
birds  of  prey.     "  To  see  them  attacking  a  buzzard,  a 
kite,  a  crow,  or  an  eagle,  is  one  of  the  most  amusing 
spectacles.     One  feels  that  they  are  sure  of  victory, 
and  one  sees  the  anger  of  the  bird  of  prey.     In  such 
circumstances  they  perfectly  support  one  another,  and 
their  courage  grows  with   their  numbers.2     The  lap- 
wing has  well  merited  the  name  of  a  "good  mother  " 
which   the    Greeks  gave   to  it,  for   it   never  fails   to 
protect  other  aquatic  birds  from  the  attacks  of  their 
enemies.    But  even  the  little  white  wagtails  (Motacilla 
alba),  whom  we  well  know  in  our  gardens  and  whose 

1  Dr.  Elliot  Coues,  Birds  of  the  Kcrguekn  Island,  in  Smithsonian 
Miscellaneous  Collections,  vol.  xiii.  No.  2,  p.  n. 

2  Brehm,  iv.  567. 


26  MUTUAL  AID 

whole  length  hardly  attains  eight  inches,  compel  the 
sparrow-hawk  to  abandon  its  hunt.  "  I  often  admired 
their  courage  and  agility,"  the  old  Brehm  wrote,  "and 
I  am  persuaded  that  the  falcon  alone  is  capable  of 
capturing  any  of  them.  .  .  .  When  a  band  of  wagtails 
has  compelled  a  bird  of  prey  to  retreat,  they  make  the 
air  resound  with  their  triumphant  cries,  and  after  that 
they  separate."  They  thus  come  together  for  the 
special  purpose  of  giving  chase  to  their  enemy,  just  as 
we  see  it  when  the  whole  bird-population  of  a  forest 
has  been  raised  by  the  news  that  a  nocturnal  bird  has 
made  its  appearance  during  the  day,  and  all  together 
— birds  of  prey  and  small  inoffensive  singers — set  to 
chase  the  stranger  and  make  it  return  to  its  concealment. 

What  an  immense  difference  between  the  force  of  a 
kite,  a  buzzard  or  a  hawk,  and  such  small  birds  as  the 
meadow-wagtail ;  and  yet  these  little  birds,  by  their 
common  action  and  courage,  prove  superior  to  the 
powerfully-winged  and  armed  robbers!  In  Europe, 
the  wagtails  not  only  chase  the  birds  of  prey  which 
might  be  dangerous  to  them,  but  they  chase  also  the 
fishing-hawk  "  rather  for  fun  than  for  doing  it  any 
harm;"  while  in  India,  according  to  Dr.  Jerdon's 
testimony,  the  jackdaws  chase  the  gowinda-kite  "  for 
simple  matter  of  amusement."  Prince  Wied  saw  the 
Brazilian  eagle  urubitinga  surrounded  by  numberless 
flocks  of  toucans  and  cassiques  (a  bird  nearly  akin  to 
our  rook),  which  mocked  it.  "  The  eagle,"  he  adds, 
"usually  supports  these  insults  very  quietly,  but  from 
time  to  time  it  will  catch  one  of  these  mockers." 
In  all  such  cases  the  little  birds,  though  very  much 
inferior  in  force  to  the  bird  of  prey,  prove  superior  to 
it  by  their  common  action.1 

1  As  to  the  house-sparrows,  a  New  Zealand  observer,  Mr.  T.  W. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  27 

However,  the  most  striking  effects  of  common  life 
for  the  security  of  the  individual,  for  its  enjoyment 
of  life,  and  for  the  development  of  its  intellectual 
capacities,  are  seen  in  two  great  families  of  birds,  the 
cranes  and  the  parrots.  The  cranes  are  extremely 
sociable  and  live  in  most  excellent  relations,  not  only 
with  their  congeners,  but  also  with  most  aquatic  birds. 
Their  prudence  is  really  astonishing,  so  also  their 
intelligence ;  they  grasp  the  new  conditions  in  a 
moment,  and  act  accordingly.  Their  sentries  always 
keep  watch  around  a  flock  which  is  feeding  or  resting, 
and  the  hunters  know  well  how  difficult  it  is  to 
approach  them.  If  man  has  succeeded  in  surprising 
them,  they  will  never  return  to  the  same  place  without 
having  sent  out  one  single  scout  first,  and  a  party  of 
scouts  afterwards  ;  and  when  the  reconnoitring  party 
returns  and  reports  that  there  is  no  danger,  a  second 
group  of  scouts  is  sent  out  to  verify  the  first  report, 
before  the  whole  band  moves.  With  kindred  species 
the  cranes  contract  real  friendship  ;  and  in  captivity 
there  is  no  bird,  save  the  also  sociable  and  highly- 
intelligent  parrot,  which  enters  into  such  real  friend- 
ship with  man.  "It  sees  in  man,  not  a  master,  but 
a  friend,  and  endeavours  to  manifest  it,"  Brehm 
concludes  from  a  wide  personal  experience.  The 

Kirk,  described  as  follows  the  attack  of  these  "impudent"  birds 
upon  an  "  unfortunate  "  hawk  : — "  He  heard  one  day  a  most  unusual 
noise,  as  though  all  the  small  birds  of  the  country  had  joined  in  one 
grand  quarrel.  Looking  up,  he  saw  a  large  hawk  (C.  gouldi — a 
carrion  feeder)  being  buffeted  by  a  flock  of  sparrows.  They  kept 
dashing  at  him  in  scores,  and  from  all  points  at  once.  The  unfortun- 
ate hawk  was  quite  powerless.  At  last,  approaching  some  scrub, 
the  hawk  dashed  into  it  and  remained  there,  while  the  sparrows 
congregated  in  groups  round  the  bush,  keeping  up  a  constant  chatter- 
ing and  noise "  (Paper  read  before  the  New  Zealand  Institute ; 
Nature,  Oct.  10,  1891). 


28  MUTUAL  AID 

crane  is  in  continual  activity  from  early  in  the  morn- 
ing till  late  in  the  night ;  but  it  gives  a  few  hours 
only  in  the  morning  to  the  task  of  searching  its 
food,  chiefly  vegetable.  All  the  remainder  of  the 
day  is  given  to  society  life.  "It  picks  up  small 
pieces  of  wood  or  small  stones,  throws  them  in  the 
air  and  tries  to  catch  them  ;  it  bends  its  neck,  opens 
its  wings,  dances,  jumps,  runs  about,  and  tries  to 
manifest  by  all  means  its  good  disposition  of  mind, 
and  always  it  remains  graceful  and  beautiful." 1  As  it 
lives  in  society  it  has  almost  no  enemies,  and  though 
Brehm  occasionally  saw  one  of  them  captured  by  a 
crocodile,  he  wrote  that  except  the  crocodile  he  knew 
no  enemies  of  the  crane.  It  eschews  all  of  them  by 
its  proverbial  prudence ;  and  it  attains,  as  a  rule,  a 
very  old  age.  No  wonder  that  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  species  the  crane  need  not  rear  a  numerous 
offspring ;  it  usually  hatches  but  two  eggs.  As  to  its 
superior  intelligence,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  all 
observers  are  unanimous  in  recognizing  that  its  intel- 
lectual capacities  remind  one  very  much  of  those  of 
man. 

The  other  extremely  sociable  bird,  the  parrot,  stands, 
as  known,  at  the  very  top  of  the  whole  feathered 
world  for  the  development  of  its  intelligence.  Brehm 
has  so  admirably  summed  up  the  manners  of  life  of 
the  parrot,  that  I  cannot  do  better  than  translate  the 
following  sentence : — 

"  Except  in  the  pairing  season,  they  live  in  very  numerous 
societies  or  bands.  They  choose  a  place  in  the  forest  to  stay 
there,  and  thence  they  start  every  morning  for  their  hunting 
expeditions.  The  members  of  each  band  remain  faithfully 
attached  to  each  other,  and  they  share  in  common  good  or 

1  Brehm,  iv.  671  seq. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  29 

bad  luck.  All  together  they  repair  in  the  morning  to  a  field, 
or  to  a  garden,  or  to  a  tree,  to  feed  upon  fruits.  They  post 
sentries  to  keep  watch  over  the  safety  of  the  whole  band,  and 
are  attentive  to  their  warnings.  In  case  of  danger,  all  take 
to  flight,  mutually  supporting  each  other,  and  all  simul- 
taneously return  to  their  resting-place.  In  a  word,  they 
always  live  closely  united." 

They  enjoy  society  of  other  birds  as  well.  In 
India,  the  jays  and  crows  come  together  from  many 
miles  round,  to  spend  the  night  in  company  with  the 
parrots  in  the  bamboo  thickets.  When  the  parrots 
start  hunting,  they  display  the  most  wonderful  intelli- 
gence, prudence,  and  capacity  of  coping  with  circum- 
stances. Take,  for  instance,  a  band  of  white  cacadoos 
in  Australia.  Before  starting  to  plunder  a  corn-field/ 
they  first  send  out  a  reconnoitring  party  which  occu- 
pies the  highest  trees  in  the  vicinity  of  the  field,  while 
other  scouts  perch  upon  the  intermediate  trees  between 
the  field  and  the  forest  and  transmit  the  signals.  If 
the  report  runs  "  All  right,"  a  score  of  cacadoos  will 
separate  from  the  bulk  of  the  band,  take  a  flight  in 
the  air,  and  then  fly  towards  the  trees  nearest  to  the 
field.  They  also  will  scrutinize  the  neighbourhood  for 
a  long  while,  and  only  then  will  they  give  the  signal 
for  general  advance,  after  which  the  whole  band  starts 
at  once  and  plunders  the  field  in  no  time.  The 
Australian  settlers  have  the  greatest  difficulties  in 
beguiling  the  prudence  of  the  parrots ;  but  if  man, 
with  all  his  art  and  weapons,  has  succeeded  in  killing 
some  of  them,  the  cacadoos  become  so  prudent  and 
watchful  that  they  henceforward  baffle  all  stratagems.1 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  the  practice  of  life 
in  society  which  enables  the  parrots  to  attain  that  very 
high  level  of  almost  human  intelligence  and  almost 
1  R.  Lendenfeld,  in  Der  zoologische  Garten,  1889. 


30  MUTUAL  AID 

human  feelings  which  we  know  in  them.  Their  high 
intelligence  has  induced  the  best  naturalists  to  describe 
some  species,  namely  the  grey  parrot,  as  the  "bird- 
man."  As  to  their  mutual  attachment  it  is  known  that 
when  a  parrot  has  been  killed  by  a  hunter,  the  others 
fly  over  the  corpse  of  their  comrade  with  shrieks  of 
complaints  and  "themselves  fall  the  victims  of  their 
friendship,"  as  Audubon  said ;  and  when  two  captive 
parrots,  though  belonging  to  two  different  species, 
have  contracted  mutual  friendship,  the  accidental 
death  of  one  of  the  two  friends  has  sometimes  been 
followed  by  the  death  from  grief  and  sorrow  of  the 
other  friend.  It  is  no  less  evident  that  in  their 
societies  they  find  infinitely  more  protection,  than  they 
possibly  might  find  in  any  ideal  development  of  beak 
and  claw.  Very  few  birds  of  prey  or  mammals  dare 
attack  any  but  the  smaller  species  of  parrots,  and 
Brehm  is  absolutely  right  in  saying  of  the  parrots,  as 
he  also  says  of  the  cranes  and  the  sociable  monkeys, 
that  they  hardly  have  any  enemies  besides  men ;  and 
he  adds  :  "  It  is  most  probable  that  the  larger  parrots 
succumb  chiefly  to  old  age  rather  than  die  from  the 
claws  of  any  enemies."  Only  man,  owing  to  his  still 
more  superior  intelligence  and  weapons,  also  derived 
from  association,  succeeds  in  partially  destroying 
them.  Their  very  longevity  would  thus  appear  as  a 
result  of  their  social  life.  Could  we  not  say  the  same 
as  regards  their  wonderful  memory,  which  also  must 
be  favoured  in  its  development  by  society-life  and  by 
longevity  accompanied  by  a  full  enjoyment  of  bodily 
and  mental  faculties  till  a  very  old  age  ? 

As  seen  from  the  above,  the  war  of  each  against  all 
is  not  the  law  of  nature.  Mutual  aid  is  as  much  a  law 
of  nature  as  mutual  struggle,  and  that  law  will  become 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  31 

still  more  apparent  when  we  have  analyzed  some 
other  associations  of  birds  and  those  of  the  mammalia. 
A  few  hints  as  to  the  importance  of  the  law  of  mutual 
aid  for  the  evolution  of  the  animal  kingdom  have 
already  been  given  in  the  preceding  pages ;  but  their 
purport  will  still  better  appear  when,  after  having 
given  a  few  more  illustrations,  we  shall  be  enabled 
presently  to  draw  therefrom  our  conclusions. 


CHAPTER   II 

MUTUAL   AID    AMONG   ANIMALS    (continued) 

Migrations  of  birds. — Breeding  associations. — Autumn  societies. — 
Mammals  :  small  number  of  unsociable  species. — Hunting  associa- 
tions of  wolves,  lions,  etc. — Societies  of  rodents;  of  ruminants; 
of  monkeys. — Mutual  Aid  in  the  struggle  for  life. — Darwin's  argu- 
ments to  prove  the  struggle  for  life  within  the  species. — Natural 
checks  to  over-multiplication. — Supposed  extermination  of  interme- 
diate links. — Elimination  of  competition  in  Nature. 

As  soon  as  spring  comes  back  to  the  temperate 
zone,  myriads  and  myriads  of  birds  which  are  scattered 
over  the  warmer  regions  of  the  South  come  together 
in  numberless  bands,  and,  full  of  vigour  and  joy, 
hasten  northwards  to  rear  their  offspring.  Each  of 
our  hedges,  each  grove,  each  ocean  cliff,  and  each  of 
the  lakes  and  ponds  with  which  Northern  America, 
Northern  Europe,  and  Northern  Asia  are  dotted  tell 
us  at  that  time  of  the  year  the  tale  of  what  mutual  aid 
means  for  the  birds  ;  what  force,  energy,  and  protection 
it  confers  to  every  living  being,  however  feeble  and 
defenceless  it  otherwise  might  be.  Take,  for  instance, 
one  of  the  numberless  lakes  of  the  Russian  and 
Siberian  Steppes.  Its  shores  are  peopled  with  myriads 
of  aquatic  birds,  belonging  to  at  least  a  score  of 
different  species,  all  living  in  perfect  peace — all 
protecting  one  another. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  33 

"  For  several  hundred  yards  from  the  shore  the  air  is  filled 
with  gulls  and  terns,  as  with  snow-flakes  on  a  winter  day. 
Thousands  of  plovers  and  sand-coursers  run  over  the  beach, 
searching  their  food,  whistling,  and  simply  enjoying  life. 
Further  on,  on  almost  each  wave,  a  duck  is  rocking,  while 
higher  up  you  notice  the  flocks  of  the  Casarki  ducks. 
Exuberant  life  swarms  everywhere."1 

And  here  are  the  robbers — the  strongest,  the  most 
cunning  ones,  those  "  ideally  organized  for  robbery." 
And  you  hear  their  hungry,  angry,  dismal  cries  as  for 
hours  in  succession  they  watch  the  opportunity  of 
snatching  from  this  mass  of  living  beings  one  single 
unprotected  individual.  But  as  soon  as  they  approach, 
their  presence  is  signalled  by  dozens  of  voluntary 
sentries,  and  hundreds  of  gulls  and  terns  set  to  chase 
the  robber.  Maddened  by  hunger,  the  robber  soon 
abandons  his  usual  precautions  :  he  suddenly  dashes 
into  the  living  mass ;  but,  attacked  from  all  sides,  he 
again  is  compelled  to  retreat.  From  sheer  despair  he 
falls  upon  the  wild  ducks  ;  but  the  intelligent,  social 
birds  rapidly  gather  in  a  flock  and  fly  away  if  the 
robber  is  an  erne ;  they  plunge  into  the  lake  if  it  is  a 
falcon ;  or  they  raise  a  cloud  of  water-dust  and 
bewilder  the  assailant  if  it  is  a  kite.2  And  while  life 
continues  to  swarm  on  the  lake,  the  robber  flies  away 
with  cries  of  anger,  and  looks  out  for  carrion,  or  for 
a  young  bird  or  a  field-mouse  not  yet  used  to  obey 
in  time  the  warnings  of  its  comrades.  In  the  face  of 
an  exuberant  life,  the  ideally-armed  robber  must  be 
satisfied  with  the  off-fall  of  that  life. 

Further  north,  in  the  Arctic  archipelagoes, 

"  you  may  sail  along  the  coast  for  many  miles  and  see  all  the  1 
ledges,  all  the  cliffs  and  corners  of  the  mountain-sides,  up  tor 

1  Sy evert  soff 's  Periodical  Phenomena,  p.  251. 

2  Seyfferlitz,  quoted  by  Brehm,  iv.  760. 


34  MUTUAL   AID 

1a  height  of  from  two  to  five  hundred  feet,  literally  covered 
with  sea-birds,  whose  white  breasts  show  against  the  dark 
rocks  as  if  the  rocks  were  closely  sprinkled  with  chalk  specks. 
The  air,  near  and  far,  is,  so  to  say,  full  with  fowls." l 

Each  of  such  "  bird-mountains  "  is  a  living  illustration 
of  mutual  aid,  as  well  as  of  the  infinite  variety  of 
characters,  individual  and  specific,  resulting  from 
social  life.  The  oyster-catcher  is  renowned  for  its 
readiness  to  attack  the  birds  of  prey.  The  barge  is 
known  for  its  watchfulness,  and  it  easily  becomes  the 
leader  of  more  placid  birds.  The  turnstone,  when 
surrounded  by  comrades  belonging  to  more  energetic 
species,  is  a  rather  timorous  bird  ;  but  it  undertakes 
to  keep  watch  for  the  security  of  the  commonwealth 
when  surrounded  by  smaller  birds.  Here  you  have 
the  dominative  swans  ;  there,  the  extremely  sociable 
kittiwake-gulls,  among  whom  quarrels  are  rare  and 
short ;  the  prepossessing  polar  guillemots,  which 
continually  caress  each  other ;  the  egoist  she-goose, 
who  has  repudiated  the  orphans  of  a  killed  comrade ; 
and,  by  her  side,  another  female  who  adopts  any  one's 
orphans,  and  now  paddles  surrounded  by  fifty  or  sixty 
youngsters,  whom  she  conducts  and  cares  for  as  if 
they  all  were  her  own  breed.  Side  by  side  with  the 
penguins,  which  steal  one  another's  eggs,  you  have 
the  dotterels,  whose  family  relations  are  so  "charming 
and  touching"  that  even  passionate  hunters  recoil 
from  shooting  a  female  surrounded  by  her  young 
ones ;  or  the  eider-ducks,  among  which  (like  the 
velvet-ducks,  or  the  coroyas  of  the  Savannahs)  several 
females  hatch  together  in  the  same  nest ;  or  the  lums, 
which  sit  in  turn  upon  a  common  covey.  Nature  is 

1  The  Arctic  Voyages  of  A.  E.  Nordenskjold,  London,  1879,  p.  135. 
See  also  the  powerful  description  of  the  St.  Kilda  Islands  by  Mr. 
Dixon  (quoted  by  Seebohm),  and  nearly  all  books  of  Arctic  travel. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  35 

variety  itself,  offering  all  possible  varieties  of  characters, 
from  the  basest  to  the  highest :  and  that  is  why  she 
cannot  be  depicted  by  any  sweeping  assertion.  Still 
less  can  she  be  judged  from  the  moralist's  point  of 
view,  because  the  views  of  the  moralist  are  themselves 
a  result — mostly  unconscious — of  the  observation  of 
Nature.1 

|  Coming  together  at  nesting-time  is  so  common  with 
'most  birds  that  more  examples  are  scarcely  needed. 
Our  trees  are  crowned  with  groups  of  crows'  nests ; 
our  hedges  are  full  of  nests  of  smaller  birds ;  our 
farmhouses  give  shelter  to  colonies  of  swallows ;  our 
old  towers  are  the  refuge  of  hundreds  of  nocturnal 
birds  ;  and  pages  might  be  filled  with  the  most  charm- 
ing descriptions  of  the  peace  and  harmony  which 
prevail  in  almost  all  these  nesting  associations.  As  to 
the  protection  derived  by  the  weakest  birds  from  their 
unions,  it  is  evident.  That  excellent  observer,  Dr.| 
Coue's,  saw,  for  instance,  the  little  cliff-swallows  nesting  I 
in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  prairie  falcon;! 
(Falco  polyargus).  The  falcon  had  its  nest  on  the  top 
of  one  of  the  minarets  of  clay  which  are  so  common  in 
the  canons  of  Colorado,  while  a  colony  of  swallows 
nested  just  beneath.  The  little  peaceful  birds  had 
no  fear  of  their  rapacious  neighbour ;  they  never 
let  it  approach  to  their  colony.  They  immediately 
surrounded  it  and  chased  it,  so  that  it  had  to  make  off 
at  once.2 

1  See  Appendix  III. 

2  Elliot  Coue's,  in  Bulletin    U.S.  Geol.  Survey  of  Territories,  iv? 
No.  7,  pp.  556,   579,  etc.     Among   the   gulls   (Larus  argentatus\ 
Polyakoff  saw  on   a  marsh  in   Northern  Russia,  that  the  nesting- 
grounds  of  a  very  great  number  of  these  birds  were  always  patrolled 
by  one  male,  which  warned  the  colony  of  the  approach  of  danger. 
All  birds  rose  in  such  case  and  attacked  the  enemy  with  great  vigour.. 


36  MUTUAL  AID 

Life  in  societies  does  not  cease  when  the  nesting 
period  is  over ;  it  begins  then  in  a  new  form.  The 
young  broods  gather  in  societies  of  youngsters,  gener- 
ally including  several  species.  Social  life  is  practised 
at  that  time  chiefly  for  its  own  sake — partly  for 
security,  but  chiefly  for  the  pleasures  derived  from  it. 
So  we  see  in  our  forests  the  societies  formed  by  the 
young  nuthatchers  (Sitta  c&sza),  together  with  tit- 
mouses,  chaffinches,  wrens,  tree-creepers,  or  some 
wood-peckers.1  In  Spain  the  swallow  is  met  with  in 
company  with  kestrels,  fly-catchers,  and  even  pigeons. 
In  the  Far  West  of  America  the  young  horned  larks 
live  in  large  societies,  together  with  another  lark 
(Sprague's),  the  skylark,  the  Savannah  sparrow,  and 
several  species  of  buntings  and  longspurs.2  In  fact,  it 
f  would  be  much  easier  to  describe  the  species  which 
live  isolated  than  to  simply  name  those  species  which 
join  the  autumnal  societies  of  young  birds — not  for 
hunting  or  nesting  purposes,  but  simply  to  enjoy  life 
in  society  and  to  spend  their  time  in  plays  and  sports, 
after  having  given  a  few  hours  every  day  to  find  their 
daily  food. 

And,  finally,  we  have  that  immense  display  of 
mutual  aid  among  birds — their  migrations — which  I 
dare  not  even  enter  upon  in  this  place.  Sufficient  to 
say  that  birds  which  have  lived  for  months  in  small 

The  females,  which  had  five  or  six  nests  together  on  each  knoll  of 
the  marsh,  kept  a  certain  order  in  leaving  their  nests  in  search  of 
food.  The  fledglings,  which  otherwise  are  extremely  unprotected 
and  easily  become  the  prey  of  the  rapacious  birds,  were  never  left 
alone  ("  Family  Habits  among  the  Aquatic  Birds,"  in  Proceedings  of 
the  Zool.  Section  of  St.  Petersburg  Soc.  of  Nat.,  Dec.  17,  1874). 

1  Brehm  Father,  quoted  by  A.  Brehm,  iv.  34  seq.     See  also  White's 
Natural  History  of  Selborne,  Letter  XI. 

2  Dr.  Coues,  Birds  of  Dakota  and  Montana,  in  Bulletin    U.S. 
Survey  of  Territories,  iv.  No.  7. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  37 

bands  scattered  over  a  wide  territory  gather  in 
thousands  ;  they  come  together  at  a  given  place,  for 
several  days  in  succession,  before  they  start,  and  they 
evidently  discuss  the  particulars  of  the  journey.  Some 
species  will  indulge  every  afternoon  in  flights  prepara- 
tory to  the  long  passage.  All  wait  for  their  tardy 
congeners,  and  finally  they  start  in  a  certain  well- 
chosen  direction — a  fruit  of  accumulated  collective 
experience — the  strongest  flying  at  the  head  of  the 
band,  and  relieving  one  another  in  that  difficult  task. 
They  cross  the  seas  in  large  bands  consisting  of  both 
big  and  small  birds,  and  when  they  return  next  spring 
they  repair  to  the  same  spot,  and,  in  most  cases,  each 
of  them  takes  possession  of  the  very  same  nest  which 
it  had  built  or  repaired  the  previous  year.1 

This  subject  is  so  vast,  and  yet  so  imperfectly 
studied ;  it  offers  so  many  striking  illustrations  of 
mutual-aid  habits,  subsidiary  to  the  main  fact  of 
migration — each  of  which  would,  however,  require  a 
special  study — that  I  must  refrain  from  entering  here 
into  more  details.  I  can  only  cursorily  refer  to  the 
numerous  and  animated  gatherings  of  birds  which 
take  place,  always  on  the  same  spot,  before  they 
begin  their  long  journeys  north  or  south,  as  also 
those  which  one  sees  in  the  north,  after  the  birds  have 
arrived  at  their  breeding-places  on  the  Yenisei  or  in 
the  northern  counties  of  England.  For  many  days  in 

1  It  has  often  been  intimated  that  larger  birds  may  occasionally 
transport  some  of  the  smaller  birds  when  they  cross  together  the 
Mediterranean,  but  the  fact  still  remains  doubtful.  On  the  other 
side,  it  is  certain  that  some  smaller  birds  join  the  bigger  ones  for 
migration.  The  fact  has  been  noticed  several  times,  and  it  was 
recently  confirmed  by  L.  Buxbaum  at  Raunheim.  He  saw  several 
parties  of  cranes  which  had  larks  flying  in  the  midst  and  on  both 
sides  of  their  migratory  columns  (Der  zoologische  Garten,  1886,  p. 


38  MUTUAL  AID 

succession — sometimes  one  month — they  will  come 
together  every  morning  for  one  hour,  before  flying  in 
search  of  food — perhaps  discussing  the  spot  where 
they  are  going  to  build  their  nests.1  And  if,  during 
the  migration,  their  columns  are  overtaken  by  a  storm, 
birds  of  the  most  different  species  will  be  brought 
together  by  common  misfortune.  The  birds  which 
are  not  exactly  migratory,  but  slowly  move  northwards 
and  southwards  with  the  seasons,  also  perform  these 
peregrinations  in  flocks.  So  far  from  migrating 
isolately,  in  order  to  secure  for  each  separate  individual 
the  advantages  of  better  food  or  shelter  which  are  to 
be  found  in  another  district — they  always  wait  for 
each  other,  and  gather  in  flocks,  before  they  move 
north  or  south,  in  accordance  with  the  season.2 

Going  now  over  to  mammals,  the  first  thing  which 
strikes  us  is  the  overwhelming  numerical  predominance 
of  social  species  over  those  few  carnivores  which  do 
not  associate.  The  plateaus,  the  Alpine  tracts,  and 
the  Steppes  of  the  Old  and  New  World  are  stocked 
with  herds  of  deer,  antelopes,  gazelles,  fallow  deer, 
buffaloes,  wild  goats  and  sheep,  all  of  which  are 
sociable  animals.  When  the  Europeans  came  to 
settle  in  America,  they  found  it  so  densely  peopled 
with  buffaloes,  that  pioneers  had  to  stop  their  advance 
when  a  column  of  migrating  buffaloes  came  to  cross 
the  route  they  followed  ;  the  march  past  of  the  dense 

1  H.  Seebohm  and  Ch.  Dixon  both  mention  this  habit. 

2  The  fact  is  well  known  to  every  field-naturalist,  and  with  refer- 
ence to  England  several  examples  may  be  found  in  Charles  Dixon's 
Among  the  Birds  in  Northern  Shires.     The  chaffinches  arrive  during 
winter  in  vast  flocks ;  and  about  the  same  time,  /.  e.  in  November, 
come  flocks  of  bramblings ;  redwings  also  frequent  the  same  places 
"in  similar  large  companies,"  and  so  on  (pp.  165,  166). 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  39 

column  lasting  sometimes  for  two  and  three  days. 
And  when  the  Russians  took  possession  of  Siberia 
they  found  it  so  densely  peopled  with  deer,  antelopes, 
squirrels,  and  other  sociable  animals,  that  the  very 
conquest  of  Siberia  was  nothing  but  a  hunting  expedi- 
tion which  lasted  for  two  hundred  years  ;  while  the 
grass  plains  of  Eastern  Africa  are  still  covered  with 
herds  composed  of  zebra,  the  hartebeest,  and  other 
antelopes. 

Not  long  ago  the  small  streams  of  Northern 
America  and  Northern  Siberia  were  peopled  with 
colonies  of  beavers,  and  up  to  the  seventeenth  century 
like  colonies  swarmed  in  Northern  Russia.  The  flat 
lands  of  the  four  great  continents  are  still  covered  with 
countless  colonies  of  mice,  ground-squirrels,  marmots, 
and  other  rodents.  In  the  lower  latitudes  of  Asia  and 
Africa  the  forests  are  still  the  abode  of  numerous 
families  of  elephants,  rhinoceroses,  and  numberless 
societies  of  monkeys.  In  the  far  north  the  reindeer 
aggregate  in  numberless  herds ;  while  still  further 
north  we  find  the  herds  of  the  musk-oxen  and  number- 
less bands  of  polar  foxes.  The  coasts  of  the  ocean  are 
enlivened  by  flocks  of  seals  and  morses  ;  its  waters,  by 
shoals  of  sociable  cetaceans ;  and  even  in  the  depths 
of  the  great  plateau  of  Central  Asia  we  find  herds  of 
wild  horses,  wild  donkeys,  wild  camels,  and  wild 
sheep.  All  these  mammals  live  in  societies  and 
nations  sometimes  numbering  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  individuals,  although  now,  after  three  centuries  of 
gunpowder  civilization,  we  find  but  the  debris  of  the 
immense  aggregations  of  old.  How  trifling,  in  com- 
parison with  them,  are  the  numbers  of  the  carnivores ! 
And  how  false,  therefore,  is  the  view  of  those  who 
speak  of  the  animal  world  as  if  nothing  were  to  be 


40  MUTUAL   AID 

( seen  in  it  but  lions  and  hyenas  plunging  their  bleeding 
.!  teeth   into   the    flesh    of    their   victims !     One    might 
as  well  imagine  that  the  whole  of  human  life  is  nothing 
but  a  succession  of  war  massacres. 

Association  and  mutual  aid  are  the  rule  with  mam- 
mals. We  find  social  habits  even  among  the  carni- 
vores, and  we  can  only  name  the  cat  tribe  (lions, 
tigers,  leopards,  etc.)  as  a  division  the  members  of 
which  decidedly  prefer  isolation  to  society,  and  are 
but  seldom  met  with  even  in  small  groups.  And  yet, 
»  even  among  lions  "this  is  a  very  common  practice 
/  to  hunt  in  company."  l  The  two  tribes  of  the  civets 
(Viverridce)  and  the  weasels  (Mustelida)  might  also 
be  characterized  by  their  isolated  life,  but  it  is  a  fact 
that  during  the  last  century  the  common  weasel  was 
more  sociable  than  it  is  now  ;  it  was  seen  then  in 
larger  groups  in  Scotland  and  in  the  Unterwalden 
canton  of  Switzerland.  As  to  the  great  tribe  of  the 
dogs,  it  is  eminently  sociable,  and  association  for 
hunting  purposes  may  be  considered  as  eminently 
characteristic  of  its  numerous  species.  It  is  well 
/  known,  in  fact,  that  wolves  gather  in  packs  for  hunting, 
and  Tschudi  left  an  excellent  description  of  how  they 
draw  up  in  a  half-circle,  surround  a  cow  which  is 
grazing  on  a  mountain  slope,  and  then,  suddenly 
appearing  with  a  loud  barking,  make  it  roll  in  the 
abyss.2  Audubon,  in  the  thirties,  also  saw  the 
Labrador  wolves  hunting  in  packs,  and  one  pack 
following  a  man  to  his  cabin,  and  killing  the  dogs. 
During  severe  winters  the  packs  of  wolves  grow  so 
numerous  as  to  become  a  danger  for  human  settle- 
ments, as  was  the  case  in  France  some  five-and -forty 

1  S.  W.  Baker,  Wild  Beasts,  etc.,  vol.  i.  p.  316. 

2  Tschudi,  Thierleben  der  Alpenwelt^  p.  404. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  41 

years  ago.  In  the  Russian  Steppes  they  never  attack 
the  horses  otherwise  than  in  packs  ;  and  yet  they  have 
to  sustain  bitter  fights,  during  which  the  horses 
(according  to  Kohl's  testimony)  sometimes  assume 
offensive  warfare,  and  in  such  cases,  if  the  wolves  do 
not  retreat  promptly,  they  run  the  risk  of  being 
surrounded  by  the  horses  and  killed  by  their  hoofs. 
The  prairie- wolves  (Cants  latrans)  are  known  to/ 
associate  in  bands  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  individuals 
when  they  chase  a  buffalo  occasionally  separated  fromj 
its  herd.1  Jackals,  which  are  most  courageous  and\ 
may  be  considered  as  one  of  the  most  intelligent  > 
representatives  of  the  dog  tribe,  always  hunt  in  packs  ;;! 
thus  united,  they  have  no  fear  of  the  bigger  carnivores. 2i 
As  to  the  wild  dogs  of  Asia  (the  Kholzuns,  or  Dholes), 
Williamson  saw  their  large  packs  attacking  all  larger 
animals  save  elephants  and  rhinoceroses,  and  over- 
powering bears  and  tigers.  Hyenas  always  live  inj 
societies  and  hunt  in  packs,  and  the  hunting  organiz-j 
ations  of  the  painted  lycaons  are  highly  praised  byi 
Gumming.  Nay,  even  foxes,  which,  as  a  rule,  live 
isolated  in  our  civilized  countries,  have  been  seen 
combining  for  hunting  purposes.3  As  to  the  polar  fox, 
it  is — or  rather  was  in  Steller's  time — one  of  the  most 
sociable  animals  ;  and  when  one  reads  Steller's  descrip- 
tion of  the  war  that  was  waged  by  Behring's  un- 
fortunate crew  against  these  intelligent  small  animals, 
one  does  not  know  what  to  wonder  at  most :  the 
extraordinary  intelligence  of  the  foxes  and  the  mutual 
aid  they  displayed  in  digging  out  food  concealed  under 
cairns,  or  stored  upon  a  pillar  (one  fox  would  climb  on 

1  Houzeau's  Etudes,  ii.  463. 

2  For  their   hunting  associations  see  Sir   E.   Tennant's  Natural 
History  of  Ceylon,  quoted  in  Romanes's  Animal  Intelligence,  p.  432. 

3  See  Emil  Hiiter's  letter  in  L.  Biichner's  Liebe. 


42  MUTUAL  AID 

its  top  and  throw  the  food  to  its  comrades  beneath), 
or  the  cruelty  of  man,  driven  to  despair  by  the  numer- 
ous packs  of  foxes.  Even  some  bears  live  in  societies 
where  they  are  not  disturbed  by  man.  Thus  Steller 
saw  the  black  bear  of  Kamtchatka  in  numerous  packs, 
and  the  polar  bears  are  occasionally  found  in  small 
groups.  Even  the  unintelligent  insectivores  do  not 
always  disdain  association.1 

However,  it  is  especially  with  the  rodents,  the  un- 
gulata,    and   the    ruminants   that    we   find   a   highly- 
developed  practice  of  mutual  aid.     The  squirrels  are 
individualist  to  a  great  extent.     Each  of  them  builds 
its   own  comfortable   nest,   and    accumulates   its  own 
provision.     Their  inclinations  are  towards  family  life, 
and  Brehm  found  that  a  family  of  squirrels  is  never  so 
happy  as  when  the  two  broods  of  the  same  year  can 
join  together   with  their  parents   in  a  remote  corner 
of  a  forest.     And  yet  they  maintain  social   relations. 
/The  inhabitants  of  the  separate  nests  remain  in  a  close 
|  intercourse,  and  when  the  pine-cones  become  rare  in 
)  the  forest  they  inhabit,  they  emigrate  in  bands.     As 
t  to   the   black   squirrels   of  the    Far    West,   they  are 
•(  eminently  sociable.     Apart  from  the  few  hours  given 
every  day  to  foraging,  they  spend  their  lives  in  playing 
in  numerous   parties.     And    when  they  multiply  too 
rapidly  in  a  region,  they  assemble  in  bands,  almost  as 
numerous  as  those  of  locusts,  and  move  southwards, 
devastating  the  forests,  the  fields,  and  the  gardens ; 
while  foxes,  polecats,  falcons,  and    nocturnal  birds  of 
prey   follow  their   thick   columns  and   live  upon  the 
individuals  remaining  behind.     The  ground-squirrel— 
a   closely-akin   genus — is   still    more   sociable.     It   is 
given  to  hoarding,  and  stores  up  in  its  subterranean 
1  See  Appendix  IV. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  43 

halls  large  amounts  of  edible  roots  and  nuts,  usually 
plundered  by  man  in  the  autumn.  According  to  some 
observers,  it  must  know  something  of  the  joys  of  a 
miser.  And  yet  it  remains  sociable.  It  always  lives 
in  large  villages,  and  Audubon,  who  opened  some 
dwellings  of  the  hackee  in  the  winter,  found  several 
individuals  in  the  same  apartment ;  they  must  have 
stored  it  with  common  efforts. 

The  large  tribe  of  the  marmots,  which  includes  the 
three  large  genuses  of  Arctomys,  Cynomys,  and  Sper- 
mophilus,  is  still  more  sociable  and  still  more  intelligent. 
They  also  prefer  having  each  one  its  own  dwelling ; 
but  they  live  in  big  villages.  That  terrible  enemy  of  ( 
the  crops  of  South  Russia — the  souslik — of  which 
some  ten  millions  are  exterminated  every  year  by  man 
alone,  lives  in  numberless  colonies ;  and  while  the 
Russian  provincial  assemblies  gravely  discuss  the 
means  of  getting  rid  of  this  enemy  of  society,  it  enjoys 
life  in  its  thousands  in  the  most  joyful  way.  Their 
play  is  so  charming  that  no  observer  could  refrain 
from  paying  them  a  tribute  of  praise,  and  from  mention- 
ing the  melodious  concerts  arising  from  the  sharp 
whistlings  of  the  males  and  the  melancholic  whistlings 
of  the  females,  before — suddenly  returning  to  his 
citizen's  duties — he  begins  inventing  the  most  diabolic 
means  for  the  extermination  of  the  little  robbers.  All 
kinds  of  rapacious  birds  and  beasts  of  prey  having 
proved  powerless,  the  last  word  of  science  in  this 
warfare  is  the  inoculation  of  cholera!  The  villages  of] 
the  prairie-dogs  in  America  are  one  of  the  loveliest  I 
sights.  As  far  as  the  eye  can  embrace  the  prairie,  it 
sees  heaps  of  earth,  and  on  each  of  them  a  prairie-dog 
stands,  engaged  in  a  lively  conversation  with  its 
neighbours  by  means  of  short  barkings.  As  soon  as 


44  MUTUAL  AID 

the  approach  of  man  is  signalled,  all  plunge  in  a 
moment  into  their  dwellings  ;  all  have  disappeared  as 
by  enchantment.  But  if  the  danger  is  over,  the  little 
creatures  soon  reappear.  Whole  families  come  out  of 
their  galleries  and  indulge  in  play.  The  young  ones 
scratch  one  another,  they  worry  one  another,  and 
display  their  gracefulness  while  standing  upright,  and 
in  the  meantime  the  old  ones  keep  watch.  They  go 
visiting  one  another,  and  the  beaten  footpaths  which 
connect  all  their  heaps  testify  to  the  frequency  of  the 
visitations.  In  short,  the  best  naturalists  have  written 
some  of  their  best  pages  in  describing  the  associations 
of  the  prairie-dogs  of  America,  the  marmots  of  the  Old 
World,  and  the  polar  marmots  of  the  Alpine  regions. 
And  yet,  I  must  make,  as  regards  the  marmots,  the 
same  remark  as  I  have  made  when  speaking  of  the 
bees.  They  have  maintained  their  fighting  instincts, 
and  these  instincts  reappear  in  captivity.  But  in  their 
big  associations,  in  the  face  of  free  Nature,  the  un- 
sociable instincts  have  no  opportunity  to  develop,  and 
the  general  result  is  peace  and  harmony. 

Even  such  harsh  animals  as  the  rats,  which  con- 
tinually fight  in  our  cellars,  are  sufficiently  intelligent 
not  to  quarrel  when  they  plunder  our  larders,  but  to 
aid  one  another  in  their  plundering  expeditions  and 
migrations,  and  even  to  feed  their  invalids.  As  to  the 
beaver-rats  or  musk-rats  of  Canada,  they  are  extremely 
sociable.  Audubon  could  not'but  admire  "  their  peace- 
ful communities,  which  require  only  being  left  in  peace 
to  enjoy  happiness."  Like  all  sociable  animals,  they 
are  lively  and  playful,  they  easily  combine  with  other 
species,  and  they  have  attained  a  very  high  degree  of 
intellectual  development.  '  In  their  villages,  always 
disposed  on  the  shores  of  lakes  and  rivers,  they  take 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  45 

into  account  the  changing  level  of  water ;  their  dome- 
shaped  houses,  which  are  built  of  beaten  clay  inter- 
woven with  reeds,  have  separate  corners  for  organic 
refuse,  and  their  halls  are  well  carpeted  at  winter- 
time ;  they  are  warm,  and,  nevertheless,  well  ventilated. 
As  to  the  beavers,  which  are  endowed,  as  known, 
with  a  most  sympathetic  character,  their  astounding 
dams  and  villages,  in  which  generations  live  and  die 
without  knowing  of  any  enemies  but  the  otter  and 
man,  so  wonderfully  illustrate  what  mutual  aid  can 
achieve  for  the  security  of  the  species,  the  develop- 
ment of  social  habits,  and  the  evolution  of  intelligence, 
that  they  are  familiar  to  all  interested  in  animal  life. 
Let  me  only  remark  that  with  the  beavers,  the  musk- 
rats,  and  some  other  rodents,  we  already  find  the 
feature  which  will  also  be  distinctive  of  human  com- 
munities— that  is,  work  in  common. 

I  pass  in  silence  the  two  large  families  which  include 
the  jerboa,  the  chinchilla,  the  biscacha,  and  the  tushkan, 
or  underground  hare  of  South  Russia,  though  all  these 
small  rodents  might  be  taken  as  excellent  illustrations 
of  the  pleasures  derived  by  animals  from  social  life.1 
Precisely,  the  pleasures  ;  because  it  is  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  say  what  brings  animals  together — the  needs 
of  mutual  protection,  or  simply  the  pleasure  of  feeling 
surrounded  by  their  congeners.  At  any  rate,  our 
common  hares,  which  do  not  gather  in  societies  for  life 

1  With  regard  to  the  viscacha  it  is  very  interesting  to  note  that 
these  highly-sociable  little  animals  not  only  live  peaceably  together 
in  each  village,  but  that  whole  villages  visit  each  other  at  nights. 
Sociability  is  thus  extended  to  the  whole  species — not  only  to  a  given 
society,  or  to  a  nation,  as  we  saw  it  with  the  ants.  When  the  farmer 
destroys  a  viscacha-burrow,  and  buries  the  inhabitants  under  a  heap 
of  earth,  other  viscachas — we  arertold  by  Hudson — "come  from  a 
distance  to  dig  out  those  that  are  buried  alive"  (/. c.,  p.  311).  This 
is  a  widely-known  fact  in  La  Plata,  verified  by  the  author. 


46  MUTUAL  AID 

in  common,  and  which  are  not  even  endowed  with 
intense  parental  feelings,  cannot  live  without  coming 
together  for  play.  Dietrich  de  Winckell,  who  is 
considered  to  be  among  the  best  acquainted  with  the 
habits  of  hares,  describes  them  as  passionate  players, 
becoming  so  intoxicated  by  their  play  that  a  hare  has 
been  known  to  take  an  approaching  fox  for  a  playmate.1 
As  to  the  rabbit,  it  lives  in  societies,  and  its  family 
life  is  entirely  built  upon  the  image  of  the  old  patri- 
archal family  ;  the  young  ones  being  kept  in  absolute 
obedience  to  the  father  and  even  the  grandfather.2 
And  here  we  have  the  example  of  two  very  closely- 
allied  species  which  cannot  bear  each  other — not 
because  they  live  upon  nearly  the  same  food,  as  like 
cases  are  too  often  explained,  but  most  probably 
because  the  passionate,  eminently-individualist  hare 
cannot  make  friends  with  that  placid,  quiet,  and  sub- 
missive creature,  the  rabbit.  Their  tempers  are  too 
widely  different  not  to  be  an  obstacle  to  friendship. 

Life  in  societies  is  again  the  rule  with  the  large 
family  of  horses,  which  includes  the  wild  horses  and 
donkeys  of  Asia,  the  zebras,  the  mustangs,  the  cimar- 
rones  of  the  Pampas,  and  the  half-wild  horses  of 
Mongolia  and  Siberia.  They  all  live  in  numerous 
associations  made  up  of  many  studs,  each  of  which 
consists  of  a  number  of  mares  under  the  leadership  of 
a  male.  These  numberless  inhabitants  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  World,  badly  organized  on  the  whole  for 
resisting  both  their  numerous  enemies  and  the  adverse 
conditions  of  climate,  would  soon  have  disappeared 

1  Handbuch  fur  Jdger  und  Jagdberechtigte,  quoted  by  Brehm,  ii. 
223. 

2  Buffon's  Histoire  Naturelk. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  47 

from  the  surface  of  the  earth  were  it  not  for  their 
sociable  spirit.  When  a  beast  of  prey  approaches 
them,  several  studs  unite  at  once ;  they  repulse  the 
beast  and  sometimes  chase  it :  and  neither  the  wolf 
nor  the  bear,  not  even  the  lion,  can  capture  a  horse  or 
even  a  zebra  as  long  as  they  are  not  detached  from 
the  herd.  When  a  drought  is  burning  the  grass  in 
the  prairies,  they  gather  in  herds  of  sometimes  10,000 
individuals  strong,  and  migrate.  And  when  a  snow- 
storm rages  in  the  Steppes,  each  stud  keeps  close 
together,  and  repairs  to  a  protected  ravine.  But  if 
confidence  disappears,  or  the  group  has  been  seized 
by  panic,  and  disperses,  the  horses  perish  and  the 
survivors  are  found  after  the  storm  half  dying  from 
fatigue.  Union  is  their  chief  arm  in  the  struggle  for 
life,  and  man  is  their  chief  enemy.  Before  his  increas- 
ing numbers  the  ancestors  of  our  domestic  horse  (the 
Equus  Przewalskii,  so  named  by  Polyakoff)  have  pre- 
ferred to  retire  to  the  wildest  and  least  accessible 
plateaus  on  the  outskirts  of  Thibet,  where  they  con- 
tinue to  live,  surrounded  by  carnivores,  under  a 
climate  as  bad  as  that  of  the  Arctic  regions,  but  in  a 
region  inaccessible  to  man.1 

Many  striking  illustrations   of   social  life  could  be 
taken  from  the  life  of  the  reindeer,  and  especially  of 

1  In  connection  with  the  horses  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the 
quagga  zebra,  which  never  comes  together  with  the  dauw  zebra, 
nevertheless  lives  on  excellent  terms,  not  only  with  ostriches,  which 
are  very  good  sentries,  but  also  with  gazelles,  several  species  of 
antelopes,  and  gnus.  We  thus  have  a  case  of  mutual  dislike  between 
the  quagga  and  the  dauw  which  cannot  be  explained  by  competition 
for  food.  The  fact  that  the  quagga  lives  together  with  ruminants 
feeding  on  the  same  grass  as  itself  excludes  that  hypothesis,  and  we 
must  look  for  some  incompatibility  of  character,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  hare  and  the  rabbit.  Cf.,  among  others,  Give  Phillips-Wolley's 
Big  Game  Shooting  (Badminton  Library),  which  contains  excellent 
illustrations  of  various  species  living  together  in  East  Africa. 


48  MUTUAL  AID 

that  large  division  of  ruminants  which  might  include 
the  roebucks,  the  fallow  deer,  the  antelopes,  the 
gazelles,  the  ibex,  and,  in  fact,  the  whole  of  the  three 
numerous  families  of  the  Antelopides,  the  Caprides, 
and  the  Ovides.  Their  watchfulness  over  the  safety 
of  their  herds  against  attacks  of  carnivores ;  the 
anxiety  displayed  by  all  individuals  in  a  herd  of 
chamois  as  long  as  all  of  them  have  not  cleared  a 
difficult  passage  over  rocky  cliffs  ;  the  adoption  of 
orphans  ;  the  despair  of  the  gazelle  whose  mate,  or 
even  comrade  of  the  same  sex,  has  been  killed ;  the 
plays  of  the  youngsters,  and  many  other  features, 
could  be  mentioned.  But  perhaps  the  most  striking 
illustration  of  mutual  support  is  given  by  the  occa- 
sional migrations  of  fallow  deer,  such  as  I  saw  once  on 
the  Amur.  When  I  crossed  the  high  plateau  and  its 
border  ridge,  the  Great  Khingan,  on  my  way  from 
Transbaikalia  to  Merghen,  and  further  travelled  over 
the  high  prairies  on  my  way  to  the  Amur,  I  could 
ascertain  how  thinly-peopled  with  fallow  deer  these 
mostly  uninhabited  regions  are.1  Two  years  later  I 
was  travelling  up  the  Amur,  and  by  the  end  of 
October  reached  the  lower  end  of  that  picturesque 
gorge  which  the'  Amur  pierces  in  the  Dousse-alin 
(Little  Khingan)  before  it  enters  the  lowlands  where 
it  joins  the  Sungari.  I  found  the  Cossacks  in  the 
villages  of  that  gorge  in  the  greatest  excitement, 
because  thousands  and  thousands  of  fallow  deer  were 
crossing  the  Amur  where  it  is  narrowest,  in  order  to 
reach  the  lowlands.  For  several  days  in  succession, 

1  Our  Tungus  hunter,  who  was  going  to  marry,  and  therefore  was 
prompted  by  the  desire  of  getting  as  many  furs  as  he  possibly  could, 
was  beating  the  hill-sides  all  day  long  on  horseback  in  search  of 
deer.  His  efforts  were  not  rewarded  by  even  so  much  as  one  fallow 
deer  killed  every  day  ;  and  he  was  an  excellent  hunter. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  49 

upon  a  length  of  some  forty  miles  up  the  river,  the 
Cossacks  were  butchering  the  deer  as  they  crossed  the 
Amur,  in  which  already  floated  a  good  deal  of  ice. 
Thousands  were  killed  every  day,  and  the  exodus 
nevertheless  continued.  Like  migrations  were  never 
seen  either  before  or  since,  and  this  one  must  have 
been  called  for  by  an  early  and  heavy  snow-fall  in  the 
Great  Khingan,  which  compelled  the  deer  to  make  a 
desperate  attempt  at  reaching  the  lowlands  in  the  east 
of  the  Dousse  mountains.  Indeed,  a  few  days  later 
the  Dousse-alin  was  also  buried  under  snow  two  or 
three  feet  deep.  Now,  when  one  imagines  the 
immense  territory  (almost  as  big  as  Great  Britain) 
from  which  the  scattered  groups  of  deer  must  have 
gathered  for  a  migration  which  was  undertaken  under 
the  pressure  of  exceptional  circumstances,  and  realizes 
the  difficulties  which  had  to  be  overcome  before  all  the 
deer  came  to  the  common  idea  of  crossing  the  Amur 
further  south,  where  it  is  narrowest,  one  cannot  but 
deeply  admire  the  amount  of  sociability  displayed  by 
these  intelligent  animals.  The  fact  is  not  the  less 
striking  if  we  remember  that  the  buffaloes  of  North 
America  displayed  the  same  powers  of  combination. 
One  saw  them  grazing  in  great  numbers  in  the  plains, 
but  these  numbers  were  made  up  by  an  infinity  of  small 
groups  which  never  mixed  together.  And  yet,  when 
necessity  arose,  all  groups,  however  scattered  over  an 
immense  territory,  came  together  and  made  up  those 
immense  columns,  numbering  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  individuals,  which  I  mentioned  on  a  preceding 
page. 

I  also  ought  to  say  a  few  words  at  least  about  the 
"  compound  families "  of  the  elepnants,  their  mutual 
attachment,  their  deliberate  ways  in  posting  sentries, 

£ 


50  MUTUAL   AID 

and  the  feelings  of  sympathy  developed  by  such  a  life 
of  close  mutual  support.1     I   might  mention  the  soci- 
able feelings  of  those  disreputable  creatures  the  wild 
boars,  and  find  a  word  of  praise  for  their  powers  of 
association  in  the  case  of  an  attack  by  a  beast  of  prey.2 
The    hippopotamus  and    the    rhinoceros,    too,    would 
occupy  a  place  in  a  work  devoted  to  animal  sociability. 
Several   striking  pages  might  be   given  to  the  soci- 
/ability  and   mutual   attachment  of  the  seals  and  the 
^walruses  ;    and  finally,   one   might  mention  the  most 
excellent  feelings  existing  among  the   sociable   ceta- 
ceans.    But    I  have  to   say   yet  a   few    words  about 
jthe  societies  of  monkeys,  which  acquire  an  additional 
/interest  from  their  being  the  link  which  will  bring  us 
I  to  the  societies  of  primitive  men. 

It  is  hardly  needful  to  say  that  those  mammals, 
which  stand  at  the  very  top  of  the  animal  world  and 
most  approach  man  by  their  structure  and  intelligence, 
are  eminently  sociable.  Evidently  we  must  be  pre- 
pared to  meet  with  all  varieties  of  character  and  habits 
in  so  great  a  division  of  the  animal  kingdom  which 
includes  hundreds  of  species.  But,  all  things  con- 
sidered, it  must  be  said  that  sociability,  action  in 
common,  mutual  protection,  and  a  high  development 
of  those  feelings  which  are  the  necessary  outcome  of 
social  life,  are  characteristic  of  most  monkeys  and 
apes.  From  the  smallest  species  to  the  biggest  ones, 
sociability  is  a  rule  to  which  we  know  but  a  few 

1  According  to  Samuel  W.  Baker,  elephants  combine  in  larger 
groups     than     the     "compound     family."     "I     have     frequently 
observed,"  he  wrote,  "in  the  portion  of  Ceylon  known  as  the  Park 
Country,   the   tracks   of  elephants   in   great   numbers   which   have 
evidently  been  considerable  herds  that  have  joined  together  in  a 
general  retreat  from    a  ground  which  they  considered  insecure" 
(  Wild  Beasts  and  their  Ways,  vol.  i.  p.  102). 

2  Pigs,  attacked  by  wolves,  do  the  same  (Hudson,  /.  c.). 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  51 

exceptions.  The  nocturnal  apes  prefer  isolated  life  ; 
the  capuchins  (Cebus  capucimis),  the  monos,  and  the 
howling  monkeys  live  but  in  small  families  ;  and  the 
orang-outans  have  never  been  seen  by  A.  R.  Wallace 
otherwise  than  either  solitary  or  in  very  small  groups 
of  three  or  four  individuals,  while  the  gorillas  seem 
never  to  join  in  bands.  But  all  the  remainder  of  the 
monkey  tribe — the  chimpanzees,  the  sajous,  the  sakis, 
the  mandrills,  the  baboons,  and  so  on — are  sociable  in 
the  highest  degree.  They  live  in  great  bands,  and 
even  join  with  other  species  than  their  own.  Most  of 
them  become  quite  unhappy  when  solitary.  The 
cries  of  distress  of  each  one  of  the  band  immediately 
bring  together  the  whole  of  the  band,  and  they  boldly 
repulse  the  attacks  of  most  carnivores  and  birds  of 
prey.  Even  eagles  do  not  dare  attack  them.  They 
plunder  our  fields  always  in  bands — the  old  ones  taking 
care  for  the  safety  of  the  commonwealth.  The  little 
tee-tees,  whose  childish  sweet  faces  so  much  struck 
Humboldt,  embrace  and  protect  one  another  when  it 
rains,  rolling  their  tails  over  the  necks  of  their 
shivering  comrades.  Several  species  display  the 
greatest  solicitude  for  their  wounded,  and  do  not 
abandon  a  wounded  comrade  during  a  retreat  till  they 
have  ascertained  that  it  is  dead  and  that  they  are  help- 
less to  restore  it  to  life.  Thus  James  Forbes  narrated 
in  his  Oriental  Memoirs  a  fact  of  such  resistance  in 
reclaiming  from  his  hunting  party  the  dead  body  of  a 
female  monkey  that  one  fully  understands  why  "  the 
witnesses  of  this  extraordinary  scene  resolved  never 
again  to  fire  at  one  of  the  monkey  race."  J  In  some  \ 
species  several  individuals  will  combine  to  overturn  a  ) 
stone  in  order  to  search  for  ants'  eggs  under  it.  The 
1  Romanes's  Animal  Intelligence >  p.  472. 


52  MUTUAL   AID 

hamadryas  not  only  post  sentries,  but  have  been  seen 
making  a  chain  for  the  transmission  of  the  spoil  to  a 
safe  place  ;  and  their  courage  is  well  known.  Brehm's 
description  of  the  regular  fight  which  his  caravan  had 
to  sustain  before  the  hamadryas  would  let  it  resume  its 
journey  in  the  valley  of  the  Mensa,  in  Abyssinia,  has 
become  classical.1  The  playfulness  of  the  tailed  apes 
and  the  mutual  attachment  which  reigns  in  the  families 
of  chimpanzees  also  are  familiar  to  the  general  reader. 
And  if  we  find  among  the  highest  apes  two  species,  the 
orang-outan  and  the  gorilla,  which  are  not  sociable, 
we  must  remember  that  both — limited  as  they  are  to 
very  small  areas,  the  one  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  and 
the  other  in  the  two  islands  of  Borneo  and  Sumatra — 
have  all  the  appearance  of  being  the  last  remnants  of 
formerly  much  more  numerous  species.  The  gorilla 
at  least  seems  to  have  been  sociable  in  olden  times, 
if  the  apes  mentioned  in  the  Periplus  really  were 
gorillas. 

We  thus  see,  even  from  the  above  brief  review,  that 
life  in  societies  is  no  exception  in  the  animal  world ;  it 
is  the  rule,  the  law  of  Nature,  and  it  reaches  its  fullest 
development  with  the  higher  vertebrates.  Those 
species  which  live  solitary,  or  in  small  families  only, 
are  relatively  few,  and  their  numbers  are  limited. 
Nay,  it  appears  very  probable  that,  apart  from  a  few 
exceptions,  those  birds  and  mammals  which  are  not 
gregarious  now,  were  living  in  societies  before  man 
multiplied  on  the  earth  and  waged  a  permanent  war 
against  them,  or  destroyed  the  sources  from  which 

1  Brehm,  i.  82 ;  Darwin's  Descent  of  Man,  ch.  iii.  The  Kozloff 
expedition  of  1899-1901  have  also  had  to  sustain  in  Northern  Thibet 
a  similar  fight. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  53 

they  formerly  derived  food.  "  On  ne  s'associe  pas 
pour  mourir,"  was  the  sound  remark  of  Espinas ;  and 
Houzeau,  who  knew  the  animal  world  of  some  parts  of 
America  when  it  was  not  yet  affected  by  man,  wrote 
to  the  same  effect. 

Association  is  found  in  the  animal  worlcl  at  all 
degrees  of  evolution  ;  and,  according  to  the  grand 
idea  of  Herbert  Spencer,  so  brilliantly  developed  in 
Perrier's  Colonies  Animates,  colonies  are  at  the  very 
origin  of  evolution  in  the  animal  kingdom.  But,  in 
proportion  as  we  ascend  the  scale  of  evolution,  we  see 
association  growing  more  and  more  conscious.  It 
loses  its  purely  physical  character,  it  ceases  to  be 
simply  instinctive,  it  becomes  reasoned.  With  the 
higher  vertebrates  it  is  periodical,  or  is  resorted  to  for 
the  satisfaction  of  a  given  want — propagation  of  the 
species,  migration,  hunting,  or  mutual  defence.  It 
even  becomes  occasional,  when  birds  associate  against 
a  robber,  or  mammals  combine,  under  the  pressure  of 
exceptional  circumstances,  to  emigrate.  In  this  last 
case,  it  becomes  a  voluntary  deviation  from  habitual 
moods  of  life.  The  combination  sometimes  appears  in 
two  or  more  degrees — the  family  first,  then  the  group, 
and  finally  the  association  of  groups,  habitually 
scattered,  but  uniting  in  case  of  need,  as  we  saw  it 
with  the  bisons  and  other  ruminants.  It  also  takes 
higher  forms,  guaranteeing  more  independence  to 
the  individual  without  depriving  it  of  the  benefits  of 
social  life.  With  most  rodents  the  individual  has  its 
own  dwelling,  which  it  can  retire  to  when  it  prefers 
being  left  alone  ;  but  the  dwellings  are  laid  out  in 
villages  and  cities,  so  as  to  guarantee  to  all  inhabitants 
the  benefits  and  joys  of  social  life.  And  finally,  in 
several  species,  such  as  rats,  marmots,  hares,  etc., 


54  MUTUAL  AID 

sociable  life  is  maintained  notwithstanding  the  quarrel- 
some or  otherwise  egotistic  inclinations  of  the  isolated 
individual.  Thus  it  is  not  imposed,  as  is  the  case  with 
ants  and  bees,  by  the  very  physiological  structure  of 
the  individuals ;  it  is  cultivated  for  the  benefits  of 
mutual  aid,  or  for  the  sake  of  its  pleasures.  And  this, 
of  course,  appears  with  all  possible  gradations  and 
with  the  greatest  variety  of  individual  and  specific 
characters — the  very  variety  of  aspects  taken  by  social 
life  being  a  consequence,  and  for  us  a  further  proof,  of 
its  generality.1 

Sociability — that  is,  the  need  of  the  animal  of 
associating  with  its  like — the  love  of  society  for  society's 
sake,  combined  with  the  "joy  of  life,"  only  now  begins 
to  receive  due  attention  from  the  zoologists.2  We 
know  at  the  present  time  that  all  animals,  beginning 
with  the  ants,  going  on  to  the  birds,  and  ending  with 
the  highest  mammals,  are  fond  of  plays,  wrestling, 
running  after  each  other,  trying  to  capture  each  other, 
teasing  each  other,  and  so  on.  And  while  many  plays 
are,  so  to  speak,  a  school  for  the  proper  behaviour  of 
the  young  in  mature  life,  there  are  others,  which,  apart 
from  their  utilitarian  purposes,  are,  together  with 
dancing  and  singing,  mere  manifestations  of  an  excess 
of  forces — "  the  joy  of  life,"  and  a  desire  to  communi- 
cate in  some  way  or  another  with  other  individuals  of 

1  The  more  strange  was  it  to   read  in  the  previously-mentioned 
article  by  Huxley  the  following  paraphrase  of  a  well-known  sentence 
of  Rousseau  :  "  The  first  men  who  substituted  mutual  peace  for  that 
of  mutual  war — whatever  the  motive  which  impelled  them  to  take 
that  step — created  society"  (Nineteenth  Century,  Feb.  1888,  p.  165). 
Society  has  not  been  created  by  man  ;  it  is  anterior  to  man. 

2  Such  monographs  as  the  chapter  on  "  Music  and  Dancing  in 
Nature  "  which  we  have  in  Hudson's  Naturalist  on  the  La  Plata,  and 
Carl   Gross'  Play  of  Animals,  have  already  thrown  a  considerable 
light  upon  an  instinct  which  is  absolutely  universal  in  Nature. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  55 

the  same  or  of  other  species — in  short,  a  manifestation 
of  sociability  proper,  which  is  a  distinctive  feature  of 
all  the  animal  world.1  Whether  the  feeling  be  fear, 
experienced  at  the  appearance  of  a  bird  of  prey,  or  "  a 
fit  of  gladness  "  which  bursts  out  when  the  animals  are 
in  good  health  and  especially  when  young,  or  merely 
the  desire  of  giving  play  to  an  excess  of  impressions 
and  of  vital  power — the  necessity  of  communicating 
impressions,  of  playing,  of  chattering,  or  of  simply 
feeling  the  proximity  of  other  kindred  living  beings 
pervades  Nature,  and  is,  as  much  as  any  other  physio- 
logical function,  a  distinctive  feature  of  life  and  impres- 
sionability. This  need  takes  a  higher  development  and 
attains  a  more  beautiful  expression  in  mammals, 
especially  amidst  their  young,  and  still  more  among 
the  birds  ;  but  it  pervades  all  Nature,  and  has  been 
fully  observed  by  the  best  naturalists,  including  Pierre 
Huber,  even  amongst  the  ants,  and  it  is  evidently  the 
same  instinct  which  brings  together  the  big  columns  of 
butterflies  which  have  been  referred  to  already. 

The  habit  of  coming  together  for  dancing  and  of 
decorating  the  places  where  the  birds  habitually  perform 
their  dances  is,  of  course,  well  known  from  the  pages 
that  Darwin  gave  to  this  subject  in  The  Descent  of  Man 
(ch.  xiii.).  Visitors  of  the  London  Zoological  Gardens 
also  know  the  bower  of  the  satin  bower-bird.  But 
this  habit  of  dancing  seems  to  be  much  more  widely 
spread  than  was  formerly  believed,  and  Mr.  W. 

1  Not  only  numerous  species  of  birds  possess  the  habit  of 
assembling  together — in  many  cases  always  at  the  same  spot — to 
indulge  in  antics  and  dancing  performances,  but  W.  H.  Hudson's 
experience  is  that  nearly  all  mammals  and  birds  ("  probably  there 
are  really  no  exceptions  ")  indulge  frequently  in  more  or  less  regular 
or  set  performances  with  or  without  sound,  or  composed  of  sound 
exclusively  (p.  264). 


56  ,  MUTUAL   AID 

Hudson  gives  in  his  master-work  on  La  Plata  the 
most  interesting  description,  which  must  be  read  in  the 
original,  of  complicated  dances,  performed  by  quite  a 
number  of  birds  :  rails,  jacanas,  lapwings,  and  so  on. 

The  habit  of  singing  in  concert,  which  exists  in 
several  species  of  birds,  belongs  to  the  same  category 
of  social  instincts.  It  is  most  strikingly  developed 
with  the  chakar  (Chauna  ckavarria),  to  which  the 
English  have  given  the  most  unimaginative  misnomer 
of  "crested  screamer."  These  birds  sometimes 
assemble  in  immense  flocks,  and  in  such  cases  they 
frequently  sing  all  in  concert.  W.  H.  Hudson  found 
them  once  in  countless  numbers,  ranged  all  round  a 
pampas  lake  in  well-defined  flocks,  of  about  500  birds 
in  each  flock. 

"  Presently,"  he  writes,  "  one  flock  near  me  began  singing, 
and  continued  their  powerful  chant  for  three  or  four  minutes  ; 
when  they  ceased  the  next  flock  took  up  the  strains,  and  after 
it  the  next,  and  so  on,  until  once  more  the  notes  of  the  flocks 
on  the  opposite  shore  came  floating  strong  and  clear  across 
the  water — then  passed  away,  growing  fainter  and  fainter, 
until  once  more  the  sound  approached  me  travelling  round  to 
my  side  again." 

On  another  occasion  the  same  writer  saw  a  whole 
plain  covered  with  an  endless  flock  of  chakars,  not  in 
close  order,  but  scattered  in  pairs  and  small  groups. 
About  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  "  suddenly  the 
entire  multitude  of  birds  covering  the  marsh  for  miles 
around  burst  forth  in  a  tremendous  evening  song.  .  .  . 
It  was  a  concert  well  worth  riding  a  hundred  miles  to 
hear."  l  It  may  be  added  that  like  all  sociable  animals, 
the  chakar  easily  becomes  tame  and  grows  very 
attached  to  man.  "  They  are  mild-tempered  birds,  and 

1  For  the  choruses  of  monkeys,  see  Brehm. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  57 

very  rarely  quarrel " — we  are  told — although  they  are 
well  provided  with  formidable  weapons.  Life  in 
societies  renders  these  weapons  useless. 

That  life  in  societies  is  the  most  powerful  weapon  in 
the  struggle  for  life,  taken  in  its  widest  sense,  has  been 
illustrated  by  several  examples  on  the  foregoing  pages, 
and  could  be  illustrated  by  any  amount  of  evidence, 
if  further  evidence  were  required.  Life  in  societies 
enables  the  feeblest  insects,  the  feeblest  birds,  and  the 
feeblest  mammals  to  resist,  or  to  protect  themselves 
from,  the  most  terrible  birds  and  beasts  of  prey  ;  it 
permits  longevity ;  it  enables  the  species  to  rear  its 
progeny  with  the  least  waste  of  energy  and  to  maintain 
its  numbers  albeit  a  very  slow  birth-rate ;  it  enables 
the  gregarious  animals  to  migrate  in  search  of  new 
abodes.  Therefore,  while  fully  admitting  that  force, 
swiftness,  protective  colours,  cunningness,  and  endur- 
ance to  hunger  and  cold,  which  are  mentioned  by 
Darwin  and  Wallace,  are  so  many  qualities  making 
the  individual,  or  the  species,  the  fittest  under  certain 
circumstances,  we  maintain  that  under  any  circum- 
stances sociability  is  the  greatest  advantage  in  the 
struggle  for  life.  Those  species  which  willingly  or 
unwillingly  abandon  it  are  doomed  to  decay ;  while 
those  animals  which  know  best  how  to  combine,  have 
the  greatest  chances  of  survival  and  of  further  evolu- 
tion, although  they  may  be  inferior  to  others  in  each 
of  the  faculties  enumerated  by  Darwin  and  Wallace, 
save  the  intellectual  faculty.  The  highest  vertebrates, 
and  especially  mankind,  are  the  best  proof  of  this 
assertion.  As  to  the  intellectual  faculty,  while  every 
Darwinist  will  agree  with  Darwin  that  it  is  the  most 
powerful  arm  in  the  struggle  for  life,  and  the  most 


58  MUTUAL  AID 

powerful  factor  of  further  evolution,  he  also  will 
admit  that  intelligence  is  an  eminently  social  faculty. 
Language,  imitation,  and  accumulated  experience  are 
so  many  elements  of  growing  intelligence  of  which  the 
unsociable  animal  is  deprived.  Therefore  we  find,  at 
the  top  of  each  class  of  animals,  the  ants,  the  parrots, 
and  the  monkeys,  all  combining  the  greatest  sociability 
with  the  highest  development  of  intelligence.  The 
fittest  are  thus  the  most  sociable  animals,  and  soci- 
ability appears  as  the  chief  factor  of  evolution,  both 
directly,  by  securing  the  well-being  of  the  species 
while  diminishing  the  waste  of  energy,  and  indirectly, 
by  favouring  the  growth  of  intelligence. 

Moreover,  it  is  evident  that  life  in  societies  would 
be  utterly  impossible  without  a  corresponding  develop- 
ment of  social  feelings,  and,  especially,  of  a  certain 
collective  sense  of  justice  growing  to  become  a  habit. 
If  every  individual  were  constantly  abusing  its  personal 
advantages  without  the  others  interfering  in  favour  of 
the  wronged,  no  society-life  would  be  possible.  And 
feelings  of  justice  develop,  more  or  less,  with  all 
gregarious  animals.  Whatever  the  distance  from 
which  the  swallows  or  the  cranes  come,  each  one 
returns  to  the  nest  it  has  built  or  repaired  last  year. 
}If  a  lazy  sparrow  intends  appropriating  the  nest  which 
a  comrade  is  building,  or  even  steals  from  it  a  few 
sprays  of  straw,  the  group  interferes  against  the  lazy 
comrade ;  and  it  is  evident  that  without  such  inter- 
ference being  the  rule,  no  nesting  associations  of 
birds  could  exist.  Separate  groups  of  penguins  have 
separate  resting-places  and  separate  fishing  abodes, 
and  do  not  fight  for  them.  The  droves  of  cattle  in 
Australia  have  particular  spots  to  which  each  group 
repairs  to  rest,  and  from  which  it  never  deviates ;  and 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  59 

so  on.1  We  have  any  numbers  of  direct  observations 
of  the  peace  that  prevails  in  the  nesting  associations 
of  birds,  the  villages  of  the  rodents,  and  the  herds 
of  grass-eaters ;  while,  on  the  other  side,  we  know  of 
few  sociable  animals  which  so  continually  quarrel  as 
the  rats  in  our  cellars  do,  or  as  the  morses,  which 
fight  for  the  possession  of  a  sunny  place  on  the  shore. 
Sociability  thus  puts  a  limit  to  physical  struggle,  and  I 
leaves  room  for  the  development  of  better  moral  feel-\ 
ings.  The  high  development  of  parental  love  in  all 
classes  of  animals,  even  with  lions  and  tigers,  is 
generally  known.  As  to  the  young  birds  and  mam- 
mals whom  we  continually  see  associating,  sympathy 
— not  love — attains  a  further  development  in  their 
associations.  Leaving  aside  the  really  touching  facts 
of  mutual  attachment  and  compassion  which  have  been 
recorded  as  regards  domesticated  animals  and  with 
animals  kept  in  captivity,  we  have  a  number  of  well- 
certified  facts  of  compassion  between  wild  animals  at 
liberty.  Max  Perty  and  L.  Biichner  have  given  a 
number  of  such  facts.2  J.  C.  Wood's  narrative  of  a 
weasel  which  came  to  pick  up  and  to  carry  away  an 
injured  comrade  enjoys  a  well-merited  popularity.8 
So  also  the  observation  of  Captain  Stansbury  on  his 
journey  to  Utah  which  is  quoted  by  Darwin ;  he  saw 
a  blind  pelican  which  was  fed,  and  well  fed,  by  other 
pelicans  upon  fishes  which  had  to  be  brought  from 

1  Haygarth,  Bush  Life  in  Australia,  p.  58. 

2  To  quote  but  a  few  instances,  a  wounded  badger  was  carried 
away  by  another  badger  suddenly  appearing  on  the  scene ;  rats  have 
been  seen  feeding  a  blind  couple  (Seelenleben  der  Thiere,  p.  64  seg.). 
Brehm  himself  saw  two  crows  feeding  in  a  hollow  tree  a  third  crow 
which  was  wounded ;  its  wound  was  several  weeks  old  (Hausfreund, 
1874,  715;   Biichner's  Liebe,  203).     Mr.  Blyth  saw  Indian    crows 
feeding  two  or  three  blind  comrades ;  and  so  on. 

8  Man  and  Beast,  p.  344. 


60  MUTUAL   AID 

a  distance  of  thirty  miles.1  And  when  a  herd  of 
vicunas  was  hotly  pursued  by  hunters,  H.  A.  Weddell 
saw  more  than  once  during  his  journey  to  Bolivia  and 
Peru,  the  strong  males  covering  the  retreat  of  the  herd 
and  lagging  behind  in  order  to  protect  the  retreat. 
As  to  facts  of  compassion  with  wounded  comrades, 
they  are  continually  mentioned  by  all  field  zoologists. 
Such  facts  are  quite  natural.  Compassion  is  a  neces- 
sary outcome  of  social  life.  But  compassion  also 
means  a  considerable  advance  in  general  intelligence 
and  sensibility.  It  is  the  first  step  towards  the 
development  of  higher  moral  sentiments.  It  is,  in 
its  turn,  a  powerful  factor  of  further  evolution. 

If  the  views  developed  on  the  preceding  pages  are 
correct,  the  question  necessarily  arises,  in  how  far 
are  they  consistent  with  the  theory  of  struggle  for 
life  as  it  has  been  developed  by  Darwin,  Wallace, 
and  their  followers  ?  and  I  will  now  briefly  answer 
this  important  question.  First  of  all,  no  naturalist 
will  doubt  that  the  idea  of  a  struggle  for  life  carried 
on  through  organic  nature  is  the  greatest  general- 
ization of  our  century.  Life  is  struggle ;  and  in  that 
struggle  the  fittest  survive.  But  the  answers  to  the 
questions,  "  By  which  arms  is  this  struggle  chiefly 
carried  on?"  and  "Who  are  the  fittest  in  the  strug- 
gle ? "  will  widely  differ  according  to  the  importance 
given  to  the  two  different  aspects  of  the  struggle  : 
the  direct  one,  for  food  and  safety  among  separate 
individuals,  and  the  struggle  which  Darwin  described 
as  "  metaphorical " — the  struggle,  very  often  collective, 
against  adverse  circumstances.  No  one  will  deny  that 

1  L.  H.  Morgan,  The  American  Beaver,  1868,  p.  272;  Descent  of 
Man,  ch.  iv. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  ANIMALS  61 

there  is,  within  each  species,  a  certain  amount  of  real 
competition  for  food — at  least,  at  certain  periods.  But 
the  question  is,  whether  competition  is  carried  on  to 
the  extent  admitted  by  Darwin,  or  even  by  Wallace  ; 
and  whether  this  competition  has  played,  in  the  evolution 
of  the  animal  kingdom,  the  part  assigned  to  it. 

The  idea  which  permeates  Darwin's  work  is  certainly 
one  of  real  competition  going  on  within  each  animal 
group  for  food,  safety,  and  possibility  of  leaving  an 
offspring.  He  often  speaks  of  regions  being  stocked 
with  animal  life  to  their  full  capacity,  and  from  that 
overstocking  he  infers  the  necessity  of  competition. 
But  when  we  look  in  his  work  for  real  proofs  of  that 
competition,  we  must  confess  that  we  do  not  find  them 
sufficiently  convincing.  If  we  refer  to  the  paragraph 
entitled  "Struggle  for  Life  most  severe  between  Indi- 
viduals and  Varieties  of  the  same  Species,"  we  find  in 
it  none  of  that  wealth  of  proofs  and  illustrations  which 
we  are  accustomed  to  find  in  whatever  Darwin  wrote. 
The  struggle  between  individuals  of  the  same  species 
is  not  illustrated  under  that  heading  by  even  one  single 
instance  :  it  is  taken  as  granted ;  and  the  competition 
between  closely-allied  animal  species  is  illustrated  by 
but  five  examples,  out  of  which  one,  at  least  (relating 
to  the  two  species  of  thrushes),  now  proves  to  be 
doubtful.1  But  when  we  look  for  more  details  in  order 

1  One  species  of  swallow  is  said  to  have  caused  the  decrease  of 
another  swallow  species  in  North  America  ;  the  recent  increase  of  the 
missel-thrush  in  Scotland  has  caused  the  decrease  of  the  song-thrush; 
the  brown  rat  has  taken  the  place  of  the  black  rat  in  Europe ;  in 
Russia  the  small  cockroach  has  everywhere  driven  before  it  its  greater 
congener ;  and  in  Australia  the  imported  hive-bee  is  rapidly  exter- 
minating the  small  stingless  bee.  Two  other  cases,  but  relative  to 
domesticated  animals,  are  mentioned  in  the  preceding  paragraph. 
While  recalling  these  same  facts,  A.  R.  Wallace  remarks  in  a  foot- 
note relative  to  the  Scottish  thrushes :  "  Prof.  A.  Newton,  however, 


62  MUTUAL   AID 

to  ascertain  how  far  the  decrease  of  one  species  was 
really  occasioned  by  the  increase  of  the  other  species, 
Darwin,  with  his  usual  fairness,  tells  us  : 

"  We  can  dimly  see  why  the  competition  should  be  most 
severe  between  allied  forms  which  fill  nearly  the  same  place  in 
nature  ;  but  probably  in  no  case  could  we  precisely  say  why 
one  species  has  been  victorious  over  another  in  the  great  battle 
of  life." 

As  to  Wallace,  who  quotes  the  same  facts  under  a 
slightly-modified  heading  ("  Struggle  for  Life  between 
closely-allied  Animals  and  Plants  often  most  severe  "), 
he  makes  the  following  remark  (italics  are  mine),  which 
gives  quite  another  aspect  to  the  facts  above  quoted. 
He  says  : 

"In  some  cases,  no  doubt,  there  is  actual  war  between  the 
two,  the  stronger  killing  the  weaker ;  but  this  is  by  no  means 
necessary,  and  there  may  be  cases  in  which  the  weaker  species, 
physically,  may  prevail  by  its  power  of  more  rapid  multiplica- 
tion, its  better  withstanding  vicissitudes  of  climate,  or  its 
greater  cunning  in  escaping  the  attacks  of  common  enemies." 

f  In  such  cases  what  is  described  as  competition  may 
be  no  competition  at  all.  One  species  succumbs,  not 
because  it  is  exterminated  or  starved  out  by  the  other 
species,  but  because  it  does  not  well  accommodate  itself 
to  new  conditions,  which  the  other  does.  The  term 
"  struggle  for  life "  is  again  used  in  its  metaphorical 
sense,  and  may  have  no  other.  As  to  the  real  compe- 

informs  me  that  these  species  do  not  interfere  in  the  way  here  stated" 
(Darwinism,  p.  34).  As  to  the  brown  rat,  it  is  known  that,  owing  to 
its  amphibian  habits,  it  usually  stays  in  the  lower  parts  of  human 
dwellings  (low  cellars,  sewers,  etc.),  as  also  on  the  banks  of  canals  and 
rivers ;  it  also  undertakes  distant  migrations  in  numberless  bands. 
The  black  rat,  on  the  contrary,  prefers  staying  in  our  dwellings  them- 
selves, under  the  floor,  as  well  as  in  our  stables  and  barns.  It  thus 
is  much  more  exposed  to  be  exterminated  by  man  ;  and  we  cannot 
maintain,  with  any  approach  to  certainty,  that  the  black  rat  is  being 
either  exterminated  or  starved  out  by  the  brown  rat  and  not  by  man. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  63 

tition  between  individuals  of  the  same  species,  which 
is  illustrated  in  another  place  by  the  cattle  of  South 
America  during  a  period  of  drought,  its  value  is 
impaired  by  its  being  taken  from  among  domesticated 
animals.  Bisons  emigrate  in  like  circumstances  in 
order  to  avoid  competition.  However  severe  the  /\ 
struggle  between  plants — and  this  is  amply  proved — 
we  cannot  but  repeat  Wallace's  remark  to  the  effect 
that  "plants  live  where  they  can,"  while  animals  have, 
to  a  great  extent,  the  power  of  choice  of  their  abode. 
So  that  we  again  are  asking  ourselves,  To  what  extent 
does  competition  really  exist  within  each  animal 
species  ?  Upon  what  is  the  assumption  based  ? 

The  same  remark  must  be  made  concerning  the 
indirect  argument  in  favour  of  a  severe  competition 
and  struggle  for  life  within  each  species,  which  may 
be  derived  from  the  "  extermination  of  transitional 
varieties,"  so  often  mentioned  by  Darwin.  It  is  known 
that  for  a  long  time  Darwin  was  worried  by  the 
difficulty  which  he  saw  in  the  absence  of  a  long  chain 
of  intermediate  forms  between  closely-allied  species, 
and  that  he  found  the  solution  of  this  difficulty  in  the 
supposed  extermination  of  the  intermediate  forms.1 
However,  an  attentive  reading  of  the  different  chapters 
in  which  Darwin  and  Wallace  speak  of  this  subject 
soon  brings  one  to  the  conclusion  that  the  word 
"  extermination "  does  not  mean  real  extermination ; 

1  "But  it  may  be  urged  that  when  several  closely-allied  species 
inhabit  the  same  territory,  we  surely  ought  to  find  at  the  present  time 
many  transitional  forms.  ...  By  my  theory  these  allied  species  are 
descended  from  a  common  parent ;  and  during  the  process  of 
modification,  each  has  become  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  life  of 
its  own  region,  and  has  supplanted  and  exterminated  its  original 
parent-form  and  all  the  transitional  varieties  between  its  past  and 
present  states"  (Origin  of  Species,  6th  ed.  p.  134);  also  p.  137,  296 
(all  paragraph  "  On  Extinction  "). 


64  MUTUAL   AID 

the  same  remark  which  Darwin  made  concerning  his 
expression  :  "struggle  for  existence,"  evidently  applies 
to  the  word  "  extermination "  as  well.  It  can  by  no 
means  be  understood  in  its  direct  sense,  but  must  be 
taken  "in  its  metaphoric  sense." 

If  we  start  from  the  supposition  that  a  given  area  is 
stocked  with  animals  to  its  fullest  capacity,  and  that  a 
keen  competition  for  the  sheer  means  of  existence  is 
consequently  going  on  between  all  the  inhabitants- 
each  animal  being  compelled  to  fight  against  all  its 
congeners  in  order  to  get  its  daily  food — then  the 
appearance  of  a  new  and  successful  variety  would 
certainly  mean  in  many  cases  (though  not  always)  the 
appearance  of  individuals  which  are  enabled  to  seize 
more  than  their  fair  share  of  the  means  of  existence ; 
and  the  result  would  be  that  those  individuals  would 
starve  both  the  parental  form  which  does  not  possess 
the  new  variation  and  the  intermediate  forms  which  do 
not  possess  it  in  the  same  degree.  It  may  be  that  at 
the  outset,  Darwin  understood  the  appearance  of  new 
varieties  under  this  aspect ;  at  least,  the  frequent  use 
of  the  word  "  extermination  "  conveys  such  an  impres- 
sion. But  both  he  and  Wallace  knew  Nature  too  well 
not  to  perceive  that  this  is  by  no  means  the  only 
possible  and  necessary  course  of  affairs. 

If  the  physical  and  the  biological  conditions  of  a 
given  area,  the  extension  of  the  area  occupied  by  a 
given  species,  and  the  habits  of  all  the  members  of  the 
latter  remained  unchanged — then  the  sudden  appear- 
ance of  a  new  variety  might  mean  the  starving  out  and 
the  extermination  of  all  the  individuals  which  were  not 
endowed  in  a  sufficient  degree  with  the  new  feature  by 
which  the  new  variety  is  characterized.  But  such  a 
combination  of  conditions  is  precisely  what  we  do  not 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  65 

see  in  Nature.  Each  species  is  continually  tending  to 
enlarge  its  abode  ;  migration  to  new  abodes  is  the  rule 
with  the  slow  snail,  as  with  the  swift  bird  ;  physical 
changes  are  continually  going  on  in  every  given  area  ; 
and  new  varieties  among  animals  consist  in  an  immense 
number  of  cases — perhaps  in  the  majority — not  in  the 
growth  of  new  weapons  for  snatching  the  food  from 
the  mouth  of  its  congeners — food  is  only  one  out  of  a 
hundred  of  various  conditions  of  existence — but,  as 
Wallace  himself  shows  in  a  charming  paragraph  on  the 
"divergence  of  characters"  (Darwinism,  p.  107),  in 
forming  new  habits,  moving  to  new  abodes,  and  taking 
to  new  sorts  of  food.  In  all  such  cases  there  will  be 
no  extermination,  even  no  competition — the  new  adapt- 
ation being  a  relief  from  competition,  if  it  ever  existed; 
and  yet  there  will  be,  after  a  time,  an  absence  of  inter- 
mediate links,  in  consequence  of  a  mere  survival  of 
those  which  are  best  fitted  for  the  new  conditions — as 
surely  as  under  the  hypothesis  of  extermination  of  the 
parental  form.  It  hardly  need  be  added  that  if  we 
admit,  with  Spencer,  all  the  Lamarckians,  and  Darwin 
himself,  the  modifying  influence  of  the  surroundings 
upon  the  species,  there  remains  still  less  ( necessity 
for  the  extermination  of  the  intermediate  forms. 

The  importance  of  migration  and  of  the  consequent 
isolation  of  groups  of  animals,  for  the  origin  of  new 
varieties  and  ultimately  of  new  species,  which  was 
indicated  by  Moritz  Wagner,  was  fully  recognized  by 
Darwin  himself.  Subsequent  researches  have  only 
accentuated  the  importance  of  this  factor,  and  they 
have  shown  how  the  largeness  of  the  area  occupied  by 
a  given  species — which  Darwin  considered  with  full 
reason  so  important  for  the  appearance  of  new  varieties 
— can  be  combined  with  the  isolation  of  parts  of  the 

F 


66  MUTUAL  AID 

species,  in  consequence  of  local  geological  changes,  or 
of  local  barriers.  It  would  be  impossible  to  enter 
here  into  the  discussion  of  this  wide  question,  but  a 
few  remarks  will  do  to  illustrate  the  combined  action 
of  these  agencies.  It  is  known  that  portions  of  a 
given  species  will  often  take  to  a  new  sort  of  food. 
The  squirrels,  for  instance,  when  there  is  a  scarcity  of 
cones  in  the  larch  forests,  remove  to  the  fir-tree  forests, 
and  this  change  of  food  has  certain  well-known  physio- 
logical effects  on  the  squirrels.  If  this  change  of 
habits  does  not  last — if  next  year  the  cones  are 
again  plentiful  in  the  dark  larch  woods — no  new 
variety  of  squirrels  will  evidently  arise  from  this  cause. 
But  if  part  of  the  wide  area  occupied  by  the  squirrels 
begins  to  have  its  physical  characters  altered — in  con- 
sequence of,  let  us  say,  a  milder  climate  or  desiccation, 
which  both  bring  about  an  increase  of  the  pine  forests  in 
proportion  to  the  larch  woods — and  if  some  other  con- 
ditions concur  to  induce  the  squirrels  to  dwell  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  desiccating  region — we  shall  have  then 
a  new  variety,  i.  e.  an  incipient  new  species  of  squirrels, 
without  there  having  been  anything  that  would  deserve 
the  name  of  extermination  among  the  squirrels.  A 
larger  proportion  of  squirrels  of  the  new,  better- 
adapted  variety  would  survive  every  year,  and  the 
intermediate  links  would  die  in  the  course  of  time,  with- 
out having  been  starved  out  by  Malthusian  competitors. 
This  is  exactly  what  we  see  going  on  during  the  great 
physical  changes  which  are  accomplished  over  large 
areas  in  Central  Asia,  owing  to  the  desiccation  which 
is  going  on  there  since  the  glacial  period. 

To  take  another  example,  it  has  been  proved  by 
geologists  that  the  present  wild  horse  (Equus  Prze- 
walsk'i)  has  slowly  been  evolved  during  the  later  parts 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  67 

of  the  Tertiary  and  the  Quaternary  period,  but  that 
during  this  succession  of  ages  its  ancestors  were  not 
confined  to  some  given,  limited  area  of  the  globe. 
They  wandered  over  both  the  Old  and  New  World, 
returning,  in  all  probability,  after  a  time  to  the  pastures 
which  they  had,  in  the  course  of  their  migrations, 
formerly  left.1  Consequently,  if  we  do  not  find  now, 
in  Asia,  all  the  intermediate  links  between  the  present 
wild  horse  and  its  Asiatic  Post-Tertiary  ancestors,  this 
does  not  mean  at  all  that  the  intermediate  links  have 
been  exterminated.  No  such  extermination  has  ever 
taken  place.  No  exceptional  mortality  may  even  have 
occurred  among  the  ancestral  species  :  the  individuals 
which  belonged  to  intermediate  varieties  and  species 
have  died  in  the  usual  course  of  events — often  amidst 
plentiful  food,  and  their  remains  were  buried  all  over 
the  globe. 

In  short,  if  we  carefully  consider  this  matter,  and 
carefully  re-read  what  Darwin  himself  wrote  upon  this 
subject,  we  see  that  if  the  word  "extermination"  be 
used  at  all  in  connection  with  transitional  varieties,  it 
must  be  used  in  its  metaphoric  sense.  As  to  "  com- 
petition," this  expression,  too,  is  continually  used  by 
Darwin  (see,  for  instance,  the  paragraph  "  On  Extinc- 
tion ")  as  an  image,  or  as  a  way-of-speaking,  rather  than 
with  the  intention  of  conveying  the  idea  of  a  real 
competition  between  two  portions  of  the  same  species 
for  the  means  of  existence.  At  any  rate,  the  absence 
of  intermediate  forms  is  no  argument  in  favour  of  it 

In  reality,  the  chief  argument  in  favour  of  a  keen 

1  According  to  Madame  Marie  Pavloff,  who  has  made  a  special 
study  of  this  subject,  they  migrated  from  Asia  to  Africa,  stayed  there 
some  time,  and  returned  next  to  Asia.  Whether  this  double  migration 
be  confirmed  or  not,  the  fact  of  a  former  extension  of  the  ancestor  of 
our  horse  over  Asia,  Africa,  and  America  is  settled  beyond  doubt. 


68  MUTUAL  AID 

competition  for  the  means  of  existence  continually 
going  on  within  every  animal  species  is — to  use  Pro- 
fessor Geddes'  expression — the  "arithmetical argument" 
borrowed  from  Malthus. 

But  this  argument  does  not  prove  it  at  all.  We 
might  as  well  take  a  number  of  villages  in  South-East 
Russia,  the  inhabitants  of  which  enjoy  plenty  of  food, 
but  have  no  sanitary  accommodation  of  any  kind  ;  and 
seeing  that  for  the  last  eighty  years  the  birth-rate  was 
sixty  in  the  thousand,  while  the  population  is  now 
what  it  was  eighty  years  ago,  we  might  conclude  that 
there  has  been  a  terrible  competition  between  the 
inhabitants.  But  the  truth  is  that  from  year  to  year 
the  population  remained  stationary,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  one-third  of  the  new-born  died  before  reach- 
ing their  sixth  month  of  life  ;  one-half  died  within  the 
next  four  years,  and  out  of  each  hundred  born,  only 
seventeen  or  so  reached  the  age  of  twenty.  The 
new-comers  went  away  before  having  grown  to  be 
competitors.  It  is  evident  that  if  such  is  the  case 
with  men,  it  is  still  more  the  case  with  animals.  In 
the  feathered  world  the  destruction  of  the  eggs  goes 
on  on  such  a  tremendous  scale  that  eggs  are  the  chief 
food  of  several  species  in  the  early  summer  ;  not  to 
say  a  word  of  the  storms,  the  inundations  which 
destroy  nests  by  the  million  in  America,  and  the 
sudden  changes  of  weather  which  are  fatal  to  the 
young  mammals.  Each  storm,  each  inundation,  each 
visit  of  a  rat  to  a  bird's  nest,  each  sudden  change  of 
temperature,  take  away  those  competitors  which  appear 
so  terrible  in  theory. 

(  As  to  the  facts  of  an  extremely  rapid  increase  of 
i  horses  and  cattle  in  America,  of  pigs  and  rabbits  in 
\New  Zealand,  and  even  of  wild  animals  imported  from 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  69 

Europe  (where  their  numbers  are  kept  down  by  man, 
not  by  competition),  they  rather  seem  opposed  to  the 
theory  of  over-population.  If  horses  and  cattle  could 
so  rapidly  multiply  in  America,  it  simply  proved  that, 
however  numberless  the  buffaloes  and  other  ruminants 
were  at  that  time  in  the  New  World,  its  grass-eating 
population  was  far  below  what  the  prairies  could  main- 
tain. If  millions  of  intruders  have  found  plenty  of 
food  without  starving  out  the  former  population  of  the 
prairies,  we  must  rather  conclude  that  the  Europeans 
found  a  want  of  grass-eaters  in  America,  not  an  excess. 
And  we  have  good  reasons  to  believe  that  want  of 
animal  population  is  the  natural  state  of  things  all  over 
the  world,  with  but  a  few  temporary  exceptions  to  the ; 
rule.  The  actual  numbers  of  animals  in  a  given 
region  are  determined,  not  by  the  highest  feeding 
capacity  of  the  region,  but  by  what  it  is  every  year 
under  the  most  unfavourable  conditions.  So  that,  for 
that  reason  alone,  competition  hardly  can  be  a  normal 
condition  ;  but  other  causes  intervene  as  well  to  cut 
down  the  animal  population  below  even  that  low 
standard.  If  we  take  the  horses  and  cattle  which  are 
grazing  all  the  winter  through  in  the  Steppes  of  Trans- 
baikalia, we  find  them  very  lean  and  exhausted  at 
the  end  of  the  winter.  But  they  grow  exhausted  not 
because  there  is  not  enough  food  for  all  of  them — the 
grass  buried  under  a  thin  sheet  of  snow  is  everywhere 
in  abundance — but  because  of  the  difficulty  of  getting 
it  from  beneath  the  snow,  and  this  difficulty  is  the 
same  for  all  horses  alike.  Besides,  days  of  glazed 
frost  are  common  in  early  spring,  and  if  several  such 
days  come  in  succession  the  horses  grow  still  more 
exhausted.  But  then  comes  a  snow-storm,  which  com- 
pels the  already  weakened  animals  to  remain  without 


70  MUTUAL  AID 

any  food  for  several  days,  and  very  great  numbers  of 
them  die.  The  losses  during  the  spring  are  so  severe 
that  if  the  season  has  been  more  inclement  than  usual 
they  are  even  not  repaired  by  the  new  breeds — the  more 
so  as  all  horses  are  exhausted,  and  the  young  foals  are 
born  in  a  weaker  condition.  The  numbers  of  horses 
and  cattle  thus  always  remain  beneath  what  they 
otherwise  might  be ;  all  the  year  round  there  is  food 
for  five  or  ten  times  as  many  animals,  and  yet  their 
population  increases  extremely  slowly.  But  as  soon 
as  the  Buriate  owner  makes  ever  so  small  a  provision 
of  hay  in  the  steppe,  and  throws  it  open  during  days 
of  glazed  frost,  or  heavier  snow-fall,  he  immediately 
sees  the  increase  of  his  herd.  Almost  all  free  grass- 
eating  animals  and  many  rodents  in  Asia  and  America 
being  in  very  much  the  same  conditions,  we  can  safely 
say  that  their  numbers  are  not  kept  down  by  competi- 
tion ;  that  at  no  time  of  the  year  they  can  struggle 
for  food,  and  that  if  they  never  reach  anything 
approaching  to  over-population,  the  cause  is  in  the 
climate,  not  in  competition. 

The  importance  of  natural  checks  to  over-multipli- 
cation, and  especially  their  bearing  upon  the  competi- 
tion hypothesis,  seems  never  to  have  been  taken  into 
due  account.  The  checks,  or  rather  some  of  them, 
are  mentioned,  but  their  action  is  seldom  studied  in 
detail.  However,  if  we  compare  the  action  of  the 
natural  checks  with  that  of  competition,  we  must 
recognize  at  once  that  the  latter  sustains  no  comparison 
whatever  with  the  other  checks.  Thus,  Mr.  Bates 
mentions  the  really  astounding  numbers  of  winged 
ants  which  are  destroyed  during  their  exodus.  The 
dead  or  half-dead  bodies  of  the  formica  de  fuego 
(Myrmica  scevissima)  which  had  been  blown  into  the 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  71 

river  during  a  gale  "  were  heaped  in  a  line  an  inch  or 
two  in  height  and  breadth,  the  line  continuing  without 
interruption  for  miles  at  the  edge  of  the  water." l 
Myriads  of  ants  are  thus  destroyed  amidst  a  nature 
which  might  support  a  hundred  times  as  many  ants  as 
are  actually  living.  Dr.  Altum,  a  German  forester, 
who  wrote  a  very  interesting  book  about  animals 
injurious  to  our  forests,  also  gives  many  facts  showing 
the  immense  importance  of  natural  checks.  He  says 
that  a  succession  of  gales  or  cold  and  damp  weather 
during  the  exodus  of  the  pine-moth  (Bombyx  pini) 
destroy  it  to  incredible  amounts,  and  during  the  spring 
of  1871  all  these  moths  disappeared  at  once,  probably 
killed  by  a  succession  of  cold  nights.2  Many  like 
examples  relative  to  various  insects  could  be  quoted 
from  various  parts  of  Europe.  Dr.  Altum  also  men- 
tions the  bird-enemies  of  the  pine-moth,  and  the 
immense  amount  of  its  eggs  destroyed  by  foxes  ;  but 
he  adds  that  the  parasitic  fungi  which  periodically 
infest  it  are  a  far  more  terrible  enemy  than  any  bird, 
because  they  destroy  the  moth  over  very  large  areas 
at  once.  As  to  various  species  of  mice  (Mus  sylvati- 
.cus,  Arvicola  arvalis,  and  A.  agrestis),  the  same  author 
gives  a  long  list  of  their  enemies,  but  he  remarks  : 
"  However,  the  most  terrible  enemies  of  mice  are  not 
other  animals,  but  such  sudden  changes  of  weather  as 
occur  almost  every  year."  Alternations  of  frost  and 
warm  weather  destroy  them  in  numberless  quantities  ; 
"  one  single  sudden  change  can  reduce  thousands  of 
mice  to  the  number  of  a  few  individuals."  On  the 
other  side,  a  warm  winter,  or  a  winter  which  gradually 

1  The  Naturalist  on  the  River  Amazons,  ii.  85,  95. 

2  Dr.  B.  Altum,  IValdbeschddigungen  durch  Thiere  und  Gegenmittel 
(Berlin,  1889),  pp.  207  seq. 


72  MUTUAL  AID 

steps  in,  make  them  multiply  in  menacing  proportions, 
notwithstanding  every  enemy  ;  such  was  the  case  in 
1876  and  1 877.*  Competition,  in  the  case  of  mice, 
thus  appears  a  quite  trifling  factor  when  compared  with 
weather.  Other  facts  to  the  same  effect  are  also  given 
as  regards  squirrels. 

As  to  birds,  it  is  well  known  how  they  suffer  from 
sudden  changes  of  weather.  Late  snow-storms  are  as 
destructive  of  bird-life  on  the  English  moors,  as  they 
are  in  Siberia ;  and  Ch.  Dixon  saw  the  red  grouse 
so  pressed  during  some  exceptionally  severe  winters, 
that  they  quitted  the  moors  in  numbers,  "  and  we 
have  then  known  them  actually  to  be  taken  in  the 
streets  of  Sheffield.  Persistent  wet,"  he  adds,  "  is 
almost  as  fatal  to  them." 

On  the  other  side,  the  contagious  diseases  which 
continually  visit  most  animal  species  destroy  them  in 
such  numbers  ,that  the  losses  often  cannot  be  repaired 
for  many  years,  even  with  the  most  rapidly-multiply- 
ing animals.  Thus,  some  sixty  years  ago,  the  sousliks 
suddenly  disappeared  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sarepta, 
in  South-Eastern  Russia,  in  consequence  of  some 
epidemics  ;  and  for  years  no  sousliks  were  seen  in  that, 
neighbourhood.  It  took  many  years  before  they 
became  as  numerous  as  they  formerly  were.2 

Like  facts,  all  tending  to  reduce  the  importance 
given  to  competition,  could  be  produced  in  numbers.3 
Of  course,  it  might  be  replied,  in  Darwin's  words,  that 
nevertheless  each  organic  being  "  at  some  period  of 
its  life,  during  some  season  of  the  year,  during  each 
generation  or  at  intervals,  has  to  struggle  for  life  and 

1  Dr.  B.  Altum,  ut  supra,  pp.  13  and  187. 

2  A.  Becker  in  the  Bulletin  de  la  Societi  des  Naturalistes  de  Moscou, 
1889,  p.  625. 

8  See  Appendix  V. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  73 

to  suffer  great  destruction,"  and  that  the  fittest  survive 
during  such  periods  of  hard  struggle  for  life.  But  if 
the  evolution  of  the  animal  world  were  based  exclu- 
sively, or  even  chiefly,  upon  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
during  periods  of  calamities  ;  if  natural  selection  were 
limited  in  its  action  to  periods  of  exceptional  drought, 
or  sudden  changes  of  temperature,  or  inundations, 
retrogression  would  be  the  rule  in  the  animal  world. 
Those  who  survive  a  famine,  or  a  severe  epidemic  of 
cholera,  or  small-pox,  or  diphtheria,  such  as  we  see 
them  in  uncivilized  countries,  are  neither  the  strongest, 
nor  the  healthiest,  nor  the  most  intelligent.  No 
progress  could  be  based  on  those  survivals — the  less 
so  as  all  survivors  usually  come  out  of  the  ordeal  with 
an  impaired  health,  like  the  Transbaikalian  horses  just 
mentioned,  or  the  Arctic  crews,  or  the  garrison  of  a 
fortress  which  has  been  compelled  to  live  for  a  few 
months  on  half  rations,  and  comes  out  of  its  experience 
with  a  broken  health,  and  subsequently  shows  a  quite 
abnormal  mortality.  All  that  natural  selection  can  do 
in  times  of  calamities  is  to  spare  the  individuals 
endowed  with  the  greatest  endurance  for  privations  of 
all  kinds.  So  it  does  among  the  Siberian  horses  and 
cattle.  They  are  enduring ;  they  can  feed  upon  the 
Polar  birch  in  case  of  need ;  they  resist  cold  and 
hunger.  But  no  Siberian  horse  is  capable  of  carrying 
half  the  weight  which  a  European  horse  carries  with 
ease  ;  no  Siberian  cow  gives  half  the  amount  of  milk 
given  by  a  Jersey  cow,  and  no  natives  of  uncivilized 
countries  can  bear  a  comparison  with  Europeans. 
They  may  better  endure  hunger  and  cold,  but  their 
physical  force  is  very  far  below  that  of  a  well-fed 
European,  and  their  intellectual  progress  is  despair- 
ingly slow.  "  Evil  cannot  be  productive  of  good,"  as 


74  MUTUAL   AID 

Tchernyshevsky  wrote  in  a   remarkable    essay  upon 
Darwinism.1 

Happily  enough,  competition  is  not  the  rule  either 
in  the  animal  world  or  in  mankind.  It  is  limited  among 
animals  to  exceptional  periods,  and  natural  selection 
finds  better  fields  for  its  activity.  Better  conditions 
are  created  by  the  elimination  of  competition  by  means 
of  mutual  aid  and  mutual  support.2  In  the  great 
struggle  for  life — for  the  greatest  possible  fulness 
and  intensity  of  life  with  the  least  waste  of  energy — 
natural  selection  continually  seeks  out  the  ways  pre- 
cisely for  avoiding  competition  as  much  as  possible. 
The  ants  combine  in  nests  and  nations ;  they  pile  up 
their  stores,  they  rear  their  cattle — and  thus  avoid  com- 
petition ;  and  natural  selection  picks  out  of  the  ants' 
family  the  species  which  know  best  how  to  avoid  com- 
petition, with  its  unavoidably  deleterious  consequences. 
Most  of  our  birds  slowly  move  southwards  as  the  winter 
comes,  or  gather  in  numberless  societies  and  under- 
take long  journeys — and  thus  avoid  competition.  Many 
rodents  fall  asleep  when  the  time  comes  that  compe- 
tition should  set  in  ;  while  other  rodents  store  food  for 
the  winter,  and  gather  in  large  villages  for  obtaining 
the  necessary  protection  when  at  work.  The  reindeer, 
when  the  lichens  are  dry  in  the  interior  of  the  con- 
tinent, migrate  towards  the  sea.  Buffaloes  cross  an 
immense  continent  in  order  to  find  plenty  of  food. 
And  the  beavers,  when  they  grow  numerous  on  a 

1  Russkaya  My  si,  Sept.  1888:  "The  Theory  of  Beneficency  of 
Struggle  for  Life,  being  a  Preface  to  various  Treatises  on  Botanies, 
Zoology,  and  Human  Life,"  by  an  Old  Transformist. 

2  "  One  of  the  most  frequent  modes  in  which  Natural  Selection 
acts  is,  by  adapting  some  individuals  of  a  species  to  a  somewhat 
different  mode  of  life,  whereby  they  are  able  to  seize  unappropriated 
places  in  Nature"  (Origin  of  Species,  p.  145) — in  other  words,  to  avoid 
competition. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   ANIMALS  75 

river,  divide  into  two  parties,  and  go,  the  old  ones 
down  the  river,  and  the  young  ones  up  the  river — 
and  avoid  competition.  And  when  animals  can  neither 
fall  asleep,  nor  migrate,  nor  lay  in  stores,  nor  them- 
selves grow  their  food  like  the  ants,  they  do  what  the 
titmouse  does,  and  what  Wallace  (Darwinism,  ch.  v.) 
has  so  charmingly  described :  they  resort  to  new 
kinds  of  food — and  thus,  again,  avoid  competition.1 

"  Don't  compete  ! — competition  is  always  injurious  ' 
to  the  species,  and  you  have  plenty  of  resources  to 
avoid  it !  "  That  is  the  tendency  of  nature,  not  always 
realized  in  full,  but  always  present.  That  is  the 
watchword  which  comes  to  us  from  the  bush,  the 
forest,  the  river,  the  ocean.  "  Therefore  combine — 
practise  mutual  aid !  That  is  the  surest  means  for 
giving  to  each  and  to  all  the  greatest  safety,  the  best 
guarantee  of  existence  and  progress,  bodily,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral."  That  is  what  Nature  teaches  us  ; 
and  that  is  what  all  those  animals  which  have  attained 
the  highest  position  in  their  respective  classes  have 
done.  That  is  also  what  man — the  most  primitive 
man — has  been  doing ;  and  that  is  why  man  has 
reached  the  position  upon  which  we  stand  now,  as  we 
shall  see  in  the  subsequent  chapters  devoted  to  mutual 
aid  in  human  societies. 

1  See  Appendix  VI. 


CHAPTER   III 

MUTUAL   AID    AMONG    SAVAGES 

Supposed  war  of  each  against  all. — Tribal  origin  of  human 
society. — Late  appearance  of  the  separate  family. — Bushmen  and 
Hottentots. — Australians,  Papuas. — Eskimos,  Aleoutes. — Features  of 
savage  life  difficult  to  understand  for  the  European. — The  Dayak's 
conception  of  justice. — Common  law. 

THE  immense  part  played  by  mutual  aid  and  mutual 
support  in  the  evolution  of  the  animal  world  has  been 
briefly  analyzed  in  the  preceding  chapters.  We  have 
now  to  cast  a  glance  upon  the  part  played  by  the  same 
agencies  in  the  evolution  of  mankind.  We  saw  how 
few  are  the  animal  species  which  live  an  isolated  life, 
and  how  numberless  are  those  which  live  in  societies, 
either  for  mutual  defence,  or  for  hunting  and  storing 
up  food,  or  for  rearing  their  offspring,  or  simply  for 
enjoying  life  in  common.  We  also  saw  that,  though  a 
good  deal  of  warfare  goes  on  between  different  classes 
of  animals,  or  different  species,  or  even  different  tribes 
of  the  same  species,  peace  and  mutual  support  are  the 
rule  within  the  tribe  or  the  species ;  and  that  those 
species  which  best  know  how  to  combine,  and  to  avoid 
competition,  have  the  best  chances  of  survival  and  of  a 
further  progressive  development.  They  prosper,  while 
the  unsociable  species  decay. 

It  is  evident  that  it  would  be  quite  contrary  to  all 
that  we  know  of  nature  if  men  were  an  exception  to 

76 


MUTUAL   AID  AMONG   SAVAGES  77 

so  general  a  rule  :  if  a  creature  so  defenceless  as  man 
was  at  his  beginnings  should  have  found  his  protection 
and  his  way  to  progress,  not  in  mutual  support,  like 
other  animals,  but  in  a  reckless  competition  for  per- 
sonal advantages,  with  no  regard  to  the  interests 
of  the  species.  To  a  mind  accustomed  to  the  idea 
of  unity  in  nature,  such  a  proposition  appears  utterly 
indefensible.  And  yet,  improbable  and  unphilosophical 
as  it  is,  it  has  never  found  a  lack  of  supporters.  There 
always  were  writers  who  took  a  pessimistic  view  of 
mankind.  They  knew  it,  more  or  less  superficially, 
through  their  own  limited  experience ;  they  knew  of 
history  what  the  annalists,  always  watchful  of  wars, 
cruelty,  and  oppression,  told  of  it,  and  little  more 
besides ;  and  they  concluded  that  mankind  is  nothing 
but  a  loose  aggregation  of  beings,  always  ready  to 
fight  with  each  other,  and  only  prevented  from  so 
doing  by  the  intervention  of  some  authority. 

Hobbes  took  that  position  ;  and  while  some  of  his 
eighteenth-century  followers  endeavoured  to  prove 
that  at  no  epoch  of  its  existence — not  even  in  its 
most  primitive  condition — mankind  lived  in  a  state 
of  perpetual  warfare  ;  that  men  have  been  sociable 
even  in  "the  state  of  nature,"  and  that  want  of 
knowledge,  rather  than  the  natural  bad  inclinations 
of  man,  brought  humanity  to  all  the  horrors  of  its 
early  historical  life, — his  idea  was,  on  the  contrary, 
that  the  so-called  "state  of  nature"  was  nothing  but 
a  permanent  fight  between  individuals,  accidentally 
huddled  together  by  the  mere  caprice  of  their  bestial 
existence.  True,  that  science  has  made  some  progress 
since  Hobbes's  time,  and  that  we  have  safer  ground 
to  stand  upon  than  the  speculations  of  Hobbes  or 
Rousseau.  But  the  Hobbesian  philosophy  has  plenty 


78  MUTUAL  AID 

of  admirers  still ;  and  we  have  had  of  late  quite  a 
school  of  writers  who,  taking  possession  of  Darwin's 
terminology  rather  than  of  his  leading  ideas,  made 
of  it  an  argument  in  favour  of  Hobbes's  views  upon 
primitive  man,  and  even  succeeded  in  giving  them  a 
scientific  appearance.  Huxley,  as  is  known,  took  the 
lead  of  that  school,  and  in  a  paper  written  in  1888 
he  represented  primitive  men  as  a  sort  of  tigers  or 
lions,  deprived  of  all  ethical  conceptions,  fighting  out 
the  struggle  for  existence  to  its  bitter  end,  and  living 
a  life  of  "continual  free  fight";  to  quote  his  own 
words — "  beyond  the  limited  and  temporary  relations 
of  the  family,  the  Hobbesian  war  of  each  against  all 
was  the  normal  state  of  existence." l 

It  has  been  remarked  more  than  once  that  the  chief 
error  of  Hobbes,  and  the  eighteenth-century  philoso- 
phers as  well,  was  to  imagine  that  mankind  began 
its  life  in  the  shape  of  small  straggling  families,  some- 
thing like  the  "  limited  and  temporary  "  families  of  the 
bigger  carnivores,  while  in  reality  it  is  now  positively 
known  that  such  was  not  the  case.  Of  course,  we 
have  no  direct  evidence  as  to  the  modes  of  life  of  the 
first  man-like  beings.  We  are  not  yet  settled  even 
as  to  the  time  of  their  first  appearance,  geologists 
being  inclined  at  present  to  see  their  traces  in  the 
pliocene,  or  even  the  miocene,  deposits  of  the  Tertiary 
period.  But  we  have  the  indirect  method  which  per- 
mits us  to  throw  some  light  even  upon  that  remote 
antiquity.  A  most  careful  investigation  into  the  soeial 
institutions  of  the  lowest  races  has  been  carried  on 
during  the  last  forty  years,  and  it  has  revealed  among 
the  present  institutions  of  primitive  folk  some  traces 
of  still  older  institutions  which  have  long  disap- 

1  Nineteenth  Century,  February  1888,  p.  165. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  79 

peared,  but  nevertheless  left  unmistakable  traces  of 
their  previous  existence.  A  whole  science  devoted 
to  the  embryology  of  human  institutions  has  thus 
developed  in  the  hands  of  Bachofen,  MacLennan, 
Morgan,  Edward  B.  Tylor,  Maine,  Post,  Kovalevsky, 
Lubbock,  and  many  others.  And  that  science  has 
established  beyond  any  doubt  that  mankind  did  not 
begin  its  life  in  the  shape  of  small  isolated  families. 

Far  from  being  a  primitive  form  of  organization, 
the  family  is  a  very  late  product  of  human  evolution. 
As  far  as  we  can  go  back  in  the  palaeo-ethnology  of  man- 
kind, we  find  men  living  in  societies — in  tribes  similar 
to  those  of  the  highest  mammals ;  and  an  extremely 
slow  and  long  evolution  was  required  to  bring  these 
societies  to  the  gentile,  or  clan  organization,  which, 
in  its  turn,  had  to  undergo  another,  also  very  long 
evolution,  before  the  first  germs  of  family,  polygamous 
or  monogamous,  could  appear.  Societies,  bands,  or 
tribes — not  families — were  thus  the  primitive  form  of 
organization  of  mankind  and  its  earliest  ancestors. 
That  is  what  ethnology  has  come  to  after  its  pains- 
taking researches.  And  in  so  doing  it  simply  came 
to  what  might  have  been  foreseen  by  the  zoologist 
None  of  the  higher  mammals,  save  a  few  carnivores 
and  a  few  undoubtedly-decaying  species  of  apes 
(orang-outans  and  gorillas),  live  in  small  families, 
isolatedly  straggling  in  the  woods.  All  others  live 
in  societies.  And  Darwin  so  well  understood  that 
isolately-living  apes  never  could  have  developed  into 
man-like  beings,  that  he  was  inclined  to  consider  man 
as  descended  from  some  comparatively  weak  but  social 
species,  like  the  chimpanzee,  rather  than  from  some 
stronger  but  unsociable  species,  like  the  gorilla.1 

1  The  Descent  of  Man,  end  of  ch.  ii.  pp.  63  and  64  of  the  2nd  edition. 


8o  MUTUAL  AID 

Zoology  and  palseo-ethnology  are  thus  agreed  in  con- 
sidering that  the  band,  not  the  family,  was  the  earliest 
form  of  social  life.  The  first  human  societies  simply 
were  a  further  development  of  those  societies  which 
constitute  the  very  essence  of  life  of  the  higher 
animals.1 

If  we  now  go  over  to  positive  evidence,  we  see 
that  the  earliest  traces  of  man,  dating  from  the  glacial 
or  the  early  post-glacial  period,  afford  unmistakable 
proofs  of  man  having  lived  even  then  in  societies. 
Isolated  finds  of  stone  implements,  even  from  the  old 
stone  age,  are  very  rare ;  on  the  contrary,  wherever 
one  flint  implement  is  discovered  others  are  sure  to 
be  found,  in  most  cases  in  very  large  quantities.  At 
a  time  when  men  were  dwelling  in  caves,  or  under 
occasionally  protruding  rocks,  in  company  with  mam- 
mals now  extinct,  and  hardly  succeeded  in  making 
the  roughest  sorts  of  flint  hatchets,  they  already  knew 
the  advantages  of  life  in  societies.  In  the  valleys 
of  the  tributaries  of  the  Dordogne,  the  surface  of  the 
rocks  is  in  some  places  entirely  covered  with  caves 
which  were  inhabited  by  palaeolithic  men.2  Some- 
times the  cave-dwellings  are  superposed  in  storeys, 

1  Anthropologists  who  fully  endorse  the  above  views  as  regards 
man  nevertheless  intimate,  sometimes,  that  the  apes  live  in  poly- 
gamous families,  under  the  leadership   of  "a  strong  and  jealous 
male."     I  do  not  know  how  far  that  assertion  is  based  upon  con- 
clusive observation.    But  the  passage  from  Brehm's  Life  of  Animals, 
which  is  sometimes  referred  to,  can  hardly  be  taken  as  very  con- 
clusive.    It  occurs  in  his  general  description  of  monkeys;  but  his 
more  detailed  descriptions  of  separate  species  either  contradict  it 
or  do  not  confirm  it.     Even  as  regards  the  cercopitheques,  Brehm 
is  affirmative  in  saying  that  they    "nearly  always   live  in  bands, 
and  very  seldom  in  families  "  (French  edition,  p.  59).     As  to  other 
species,  the  very  numbers  of  their  bands,  always  containing  many 
males,  render  the  "  polygamous  family  "  more  than  doubtful     Further 
observation  is  evidently  wanted. 

2  Lubbock,  Prehistoric  Times,  fifth  edition,  1890. 


MUTUAL   AID  AMONG   SAVAGES  81 

and  they  certainly  recall  much  more  the  nesting 
colonies  of  swallows  than  the  dens  of  carnivores.  As 
to  the  flint  implements  discovered  in  those  caves,  to 
use  Lubbock's  words,  "  one  may  say  without  exag- 
geration that  they  are  numberless."  The  same  is 
true  of  other  palaeolithic  stations.  It  also  appears 
from  Lartet's  investigations  that  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Aurignac  region  in  the  south  of  France  partook 
of  tribal  meals  at  the  burial  of  their  dead.  So  that 
men  lived  in  societies,  and  had  germs  of  a  tribal 
worship,  even  at  that  extremely  remote  epoch. 

The  same  is  still  better  proved  as  regards  the  later 
part  of  the  stone  age.  Traces  of  neolithic  man  have 
been  found  in  numberless  quantities,  so  that  we  can 
reconstitute  his  manner  of  life  to  a  great  extent.  When 
the  ice-cap  (which  must  have  spread  from  the  Polar 
regions  as  far  south  as  middle  France,  middle  Germany, 
and  middle  Russia,  and  covered  Canada  as  well  as  a 
good  deal  of  what  is  now  the  United  States)  began  to 
melt  away,  the  surfaces  freed  from  ice  were  covered, 
first,  with  swamps  and  marshes,  and  later  on  with 
numberless  lakes.1  Lakes  filled  all  depressions  of  the 
valleys  before  their  waters  dug  out  those  permanent 
channels  which,  during  a  subsequent  epoch,  became 
our  rivers.  And  wherever  we  explore,  in  Europe, 
Asia,  or  America,  the  shores  of  the  literally  numberless 
lakes  of  that  period,  whose  proper  name  would  be  the 
Lacustrine  period,  we  find  traces  of  neolithic  man. 

1  That  extension  of  the  ice-cap  is  admitted  by  most  of  the 
geologists  who  have  specially  studied  the  glacial  age.  The  Russian 
Geological  Survey  already  has  taken  this  view  as  regards  Russia,  and 
most  German  specialists  maintain  it  as  regards  Germany.  The 
glaciation  of  most  of  the  central  plateau  of  France  will  not  fail  to  be 
recognized  by  the  French  geologists,  when  they  pay  more  attention 
to  the  glacial  deposits  altogether. 

G 


82  MUTUAL   AID 

They  are  so  numerous  that  we  can  only  wonder  at  the 
relative  density  of  population  at  that  time.  The 
;"  stations"  of  neolithic  man  closely  follow  each  other 
on  the  terraces  which  now  mark  the  shores  of  the  old 
lakes.  And  at  each  of  those  stations  stone  implements 
appear  in  such  numbers,  that  no  doubt  is  possible  as 
!  to  the  length  of  time  during  which  they  were  inhabited 
by  rather  numerous  tribes.  Whole  workshops  of  flint 
implements,  testifying  of  the  numbers  of  workers  who 
used  to  come  together,  have  been  discovered  by  the 
archaeologists. 

Traces  of  a  more  advanced  period,  already  char- 
acterized by  the  use  of  some  pottery,  are  found  in  the 
shell-heaps  of  Denmark.  They  appear,  as  is  well 
known,  in  the  shape  of  heaps  from  five  to  ten  feet 
thick,  from  100  to  200  feet  wide,  and  1,000  feet  or 
more  in  length,  and  they  are  so  common  along  some 
parts  of  the  sea-coast  that  for  a  long  time  they  were 
considered  as  natural  growths.  And  yet  they  "  contain 
nothing  but  what  has  been  in  some  way  or  other 
subservient  to  the  use  of  man,"  and  they  are  so  densely 
stuffed  with  products  of  human  industry  that,  during  a 
two  days'  stay  at  Milgaard,  Lubbock  dug  out  no  less 
than  191  pieces  of  stone-implements  and  four  fragments 
of  pottery.1  The  very  size  and  extension  of  the  shell- 
heaps  prove  that  for  generations  and  generations  the 
coasts  of  Denmark  were  inhabited  by  hundreds  of 
small  tribes  which  certainly  lived  as  peacefully  together 
as  the  Fuegian  tribes,  which  also  accumulate  like  shell- 
heaps,  are  living  in  our  own  times. 

As  to  the  lake-dwellings  of  Switzerland,  which 
represent  a  still  further  advance  in  civilization,  they 
yield  still  better  evidence  of  life  and  work  in  societies. 

1  Prehistoric  Times,  pp.  232  and  242. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  83 

It  is  known  that  even  during  the  stone  age  the  shores 
of  the  Swiss  lakes  were  dotted  with  a  succession  of 
villages,  each  of  which  consisted  of  several  huts,  and 
was  built  upon  a  platform  supported  by  numberless 
pillars  in  the  lake.  No  less  than  twenty-four,  mostly 
stone  age  villages,  were  discovered  along  the  shores  of 
Lake  Leman,  thirty-two  in  the  Lake  of  Constance, 
forty-six  in  the  Lake  of  Neuchatel,  and  so  on  ;  and 
each  of  them  testifies  to  the  immense  amount  of  labour 
which  was  spent  in  common  by  the  tribe,  not  by  the 
family.  It  has  even  been  asserted  that  the  life  of  the 
lake-dwellers  must  have  been  remarkably  free  of  war- 
fare. And  so  it  probably  was,  especially  if  we  refer  to 
the  life  of  those  primitive  folk  who  live  until  the  present 
time  in  similar  villages  built  upon  pillars  on  the  sea 
coasts. 

It  is  thus  seen,  even  from  the  above  rapid  hints, 
that  our  knowledge  of  primitive  man  is  not  so  scanty 
after  all,  and  that,  so  far  as  it  goes,  it  is  rather  opposed 
than  favourable  to  the  Hobbesian  speculations.  More- 
over, it  may  be  supplemented,  to  a  great  extent,  by 
the  direct  observation  of  such  primitive  tribes  as  now 
stand  on  the  same  level  of  civilization  as  the  inhabitants 
of  Europe  stood  in  prehistoric  times. 

That  these  primitive  tribes  which  we  find  now  are 
not  degenerated  specimens  of  mankind  who  formerly 
knew  a  higher  civilization,  as  it  has  occasionally  been 
maintained,  has  sufficiently  been  proved   by  Edward 
B.  Tylor  and   Lubbock.     However,  to  the  arguments 
already  opposed  to  the  degeneration  theory,  the  follow- 
ing may  be  added.     Save  a  few  tribes  clustering  in; 
the  less-accessible  highlands,  the  "savages"  represent; 
a  girdle   which   encircles   the   more  or  less   civilized', 
nations,  and  they  occupy  the  extremities  of  our  con-  ; 


84  MUTUAL  AID 

tinents,  most  of  which  have  retained  still,  or  recently 
were  bearing,  an  early  post-glacial  character.  Such 
are  the  Eskimos  and  their  congeners  in  Greenland, 
Arctic  America,  and  Northern  Siberia ;  and,  in  the 
Southern  hemisphere,  the  Australians,  the  Papuas,  the 
Fuegians,  and,  partly,  the  Bushmen  ;  while  within  the 
civilized  area,  like  primitive  folk  are  only  found  in  the 
Himalayas,  the  highlands  of  Australasia,  and  the 
plateaus  of  Brazil.  Now  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  glacial  age  did  not  come  to  an  end  at  once 
over  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth.  It  still  continues 
in  Greenland.  Therefore,  at  a  time  when  the  littoral 
regions  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  Mediterranean,  or 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  already  enjoyed  a  warmer  climate, 
and  became  the  seats  of  higher  civilizations,  immense 
territories  in  middle  Europe,  Siberia,  and  Northern 
America,  as  well  as  in  Patagonia,  Southern  Africa, 
and  Southern  Australasia,  remained  in  early  post- 
glacial conditions  which  rendered  them  inaccessible  to 
the  civilized  nations  of  the  torrid  and  sub-torrid  zones. 
They  were  at  that  time  what  the  terrible  urmans  of 
North-West  Siberia  are  now,  and  their  population, 
inaccessible  to  and  untouched  by  civilization,  retained 
the  characters  of  early  post-glacial  man.  Later  on, 
when  desiccation  rendered  these  territories  more  suit- 
able for  agriculture,  they  were  peopled  with  more 
civilized  immigrants ;  and  while  part  of  their  previous 
inhabitants  were  assimilated  by  the  new  settlers,  another 
part  migrated  further,  and  settled  where  we  find  them. 
The  territories  they  inhabit  now  are  still,  or  recently 
were,  sub-glacial,  as  to  their  physical  features ;  their 
arts  and  implements  are  those  of  the  neolithic  age  ; 
and,  notwithstanding  their  racial  differences,  and  the 
distances  which  separate  them,  their  modes  of  life  and 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  85 

social  institutions  bear  a  striking  likeness.  So  we 
cannot  but  consider  them  as  fragments  of  the  early 
post-glacial  population  of  the  now  civilized  area. 

The  first  thing  which  strikes  us  as  soon  as  we  begin 
studying  primitive  folk  is  the  complexity  of  the  organiz- 
ation of  marriage  relations  under  which  they  are  living. 
With  most  of  them  the  family,  in  the  sense  we  attribute 
to  it,  is  hardly  found  in  its  germs.  But  they  are  by 
no  means  loose  aggregations  of  men  and  women  coming 
in  a  disorderly  manner  together  in  conformity  with 
their  momentary  caprices.  All  of  them  are  under  a 
certain  organization,  which  has  been  described  by 
Morgan  in  its  general  aspects  as  the  "gentile,"  or  clan 
organization.1 

To  tell  the  matter  as  briefly  as  possible,   there  is 

1  Bachofen,  Das  Mutterrecht,  Stuttgart,  1861 ;  Lewis  H.  Morgan, 
Ancient  Society,  or  Researches  in  the  Lines  of  Human  Progress  from 
Savagery  through  Barbarism  to  Civilization,  New  York,  1877  ;  J.  F. 
MacLennan,  Studies  in  Ancient  History,  ist  series,  new  edition, 
1886  ;  2nd  series,  1896  ;  L.  Fison  and  A.  W.  Howitt,  Kamilaroi  and 
Kurnai,  Melbourne.  These  four  writers — as  has  been  very  truly 
remarked  by  Giraud  Teulon, — starting  from  different  facts  and 
different  general  ideas,  and  following  different  methods,  have  come 
to  the  same  conclusion.  To  Bachofen  we  owe  the  notion  of  the 
maternal  family  and  the  maternal  succession ;  to  Morgan — the 
system  of  kinship,  Malayan  and  Turanian,  and  a  highly-gifted  sketch 
of  the  main  phases  of  human  evolution ;  to  MacLennan — the  law  of 
exogeny ;  and  to  Fison  and  Howitt — the  cuadro,  or  scheme,  of  the 
conjugal  societies  in  Australia.  All  four  end  in  establishing  the 
same  fact  of  the  tribal  origin  of  the  family.  When  Bachofen  first 
drew  attention  to  the  maternal  family,  in  his  epoch-making  work, 
and  Morgan  described  the  clan-organization, — both  concurring  to  the 
almost  general  extension  of  these  forms  and  maintaining  that  the 
marriage  laws  lie  at  the  very  basis  of  the  consecutive  steps  of  human 
evolution,  they  were  accused  of  exaggeration.  However,  the  most 
careful  researches  prosecuted  since,  by  a  phalanx  of  students  of 
ancient  law,  have  proved  that  all  races  of  mankind  bear  traces  of 
having  passed  through  similar  stages  of  development  of  marriage 
laws,  such  as  we  now  see  in  force  among  certain  savages.  See  the 
works  of  Post,  Dargun,  Kovalevsky,  Lubbock,  and  their  numerous 
followers :  Lippert,  Mucke,  etc. 


86  MUTUAL  AID 

little  doubt  that  mankind  has  passed  at  its  beginnings 
through  a  stage  which  may  be  described  as  that  of 
"communal  marriage";  that  is,  the  whole  tribe  had 
husbands  and  wives  in  common  with  but  little  regard 
to  consanguinity.  But  it  is  also  certain  that  some 
restrictions  to  that  free  intercourse  were  imposed  at 
a  very  early  period.  Inter-marriage  was  soon  prohibited 
between  the  sons  of  one  mother  and  her  sisters,  grand- 
daughters, and  aunts.  Later  on  it  was  prohibited 
between  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  same  mother, 
and  further  limitations  did  not  fail  to  follow.  The 
idea  of  a  gens,  or  clan,  which  embodied  all  presumed 
descendants  from  one  stock  (or  rather  all  those  who 
gathered  in  one  group)  was  evolved,  and  marriage 
within  the  clan  was  entirely  prohibited.  It  still  re- 
mained "  communal,"  but  the  wife  or  the  husband  had 
to  be  taken  from  another  clan.  And  when  a  gens 
became  too  numerous,  and  subdivided  into  several 
gentes,  each  of  them  was  divided  into  classes  (usually 
four),  and  marriage  was  permitted  only  between  certain 
well-defined  classes.  That  is  the  stage  which  we  find 
now  among  the  Kamilaroi-speaking  Australians.  As 
to  the  family,  its  first  germs  appeared  amidst  the  clan 
organization.  A  woman  who  was  captured  in  war 
from  some  other  clan,  and  who  formerly  would  have 
belonged  to  the  whole  gens,  could  be  kept  at  a  later 
period  by  the  capturer,  under  certain  obligations  to- 
wards the  tribe.  She  may  be  taken  by  him  to  a 
separate  hut,  after  she  had  paid  a  certain  tribute  to  the 
clan,  and  thus  constitute  within  the  gens  a  separate 
family,  the  appearance  of  which  evidently  was  opening 
a  quite  new  phase  of  civilization.1 

Now,  if  we  take  into  consideration  that  this  com- 

1  See  Appendix  VII. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  87 

plicated  organization  developed  among  men  who  stood 
at  the  lowest  known  degree  of  development,  and  that 
it  maintained  itself  in  societies  knowing  no  kind  of 
authority  besides  the  authority  of  public  opinion,  we 
at  once  see  how  deeply  inrooted  social  instincts  must 
have  been  in  human  nature,  even  at  its  lowest  stages. 
A  savage  who  is  capable  of  living  under  such  an 
organization,  and  of  freely  submitting  to  rules  which 
continually  clash  with  his  personal  desires,  certainly  is 
not  a  beast  devoid  of  ethical  principles  and  knowing 
no  rein  to  its  passions.  But  the  fact  becomes  still 
more  striking  if  we  consider  the  immense  antiquity 
of  the  clan  organization.  It  is  now  known  that  the 
primitive  Semites,  the  Greeks  of  Homer,  the  pre- 
historic Romans,  the  Germans  of  Tacitus,  the  early 
Celts  and  the  early  Slavonians,  all  have  had  their  own 
period  of  clan  organization,  closely  analogous  to  that 
of  the  Australians,  the  Red  Indians,  the  Eskimos,  and 
other  inhabitants  of  the  "  savage  girdle." l  So  we 
must  admit  that  either  the  evolution  of  marriage  laws 
went  on  on  the  same  lines  among  all  human  races, 
or  the  rudiments  of  the  clan  rules  were  developed 
among  some  common  ancestors  of  the  Semites,  the 
Aryans,  the  Polynesians,  etc.,  before  their  differentia- 
tion into  separate  races  took  place,  and  that  these  rules 
were  maintained,  until  now,  among  races  long  ago 
separated  from  the  common  stock.  Both  alternatives 
imply,  however,  an  equally  striking  tenacity  of  the 

1  For  the  Semites  and  the  Aryans,  see  especially  Prof.  Maxim 
Kovalevsky's  Primitive  Law  (in  Russian),  Moscow,  1886  and  1887. 
Also  his  lectures  delivered  at  Stockholm  (Tableau  des  origines  et 
de  revolution  de  la  famillt  et  de  la  propriete,  Stockholm,  1890), 
which  represents  an  admirable  review  of  the  whole  question.  Cf. 
also  A.  Post  Die  Gcschlechtsgenossenschaft  der  Urzeit,  Oldenburg, 
'875 


88  MUTUAL   AID 

institution — such  a  tenacity  that  no  assaults  of  the 
individual  could  break  it  down  through  the  scores  ot 
thousands  of  years  that  it  was  in  existence.  The  very 
persistence  of  the  clan  organization  shows  how  utterly 
false  it  is  to  represent  primitive  mankind  as  a  disorderly 
agglomeration  of  individuals,  who  only  obey  their 
individual  passions,  and  take  advantage  of  their  personal 
force  and  cunningness  against  all  other  representatives 
of  the  species.  Unbridled  individualism  is  a  modern 
growth,  but  it  is  not  characteristic  of  primitive  man- 
kind.1 

Going  now  over  to  the  existing  savages,  we  may 
begin  with  the  Bushmen,  who  stand  at  a  very  low 
level  of  development — so  low  indeed  that  they  have 
no  dwellings  and  sleep  in  holes  dug  in  the  soil, 
occasionally  protected  by  some  screens.  It  is  known 
that  when  Europeans  settled  in  their  territory  and 
destroyed  deer,  the  Bushmen  began  stealing  the 
settlers'  cattle,  whereupon  a  war  of  extermination,  too 
horrible  to  be  related  here,  was  waged  against  them. 

1  It  would  be  impossible  to  enter  here  into  a  discussion  of  the 
origin  of  the  marriage  restrictions.  Let  me  only  remark .  that  a 
division  into  groups,  similar  to  Morgan's  Hawaian,  exists  among 
birds ;  the  young  broods  live  together  separately  from  their  parents. 
A  like  division  might  probably  be  traced  among  some  mammals  as 
well.  As  to  the  prohibition  of  relations  between  brothers  and  sisters, 
it  is  more  likely  to  have  arisen,  not  from  speculations  about  the  bad 
effects  of  consanguinity,  which  speculations  really  do  not  seem 
probable,  but  to  avoid  the  too-easy  precocity  of  like  marriages. 
Under  close  cohabitation  it  must  have  become  of  imperious  necessity. 
I  must  also  remark  that  in  discussing  the  origin  of  new  customs 
altogether,  we  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  savages,  like  us,  have  their 
"thinkers"  and  savants — wizards,  doctors,  prophets,  etc. — whose 
knowledge  and  ideas  are  in  advance  upon  those  of  the  masses. 
United  as  they  are  in  their  secret  unions  (another  almost  universal 
feature)  they  are  certainly  capable  of  exercising  a  powerful  influence, 
and  of  enforcing  customs  the  utility  of  which  may  not  yet  be 
recognized  by  the  majority  of  the  tribe. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  89 

Five  hundred  Bushmen  were  slaughtered  in  1774, 
three  thousand  in  1808  and  1809  by  the  Farmers' 
Alliance,  and  so  on.  They  were  poisoned  like  rats, 
killed  by  hunters  lying  in  ambush  before  the  carcass  of 
some  animal,  killed  wherever  met  with.1  So  that  our 
knowledge  of  the  Bushmen,  being  chiefly  borrowed 
from  those  same  people  who  exterminated  them,  is 
necessarily  limited.  But  still  we  know  that  when  the 
Europeans  came,  the  Bushmen  lived  in  small  tribes 
(or  clans),  sometimes  federated  together  ;  that  they 
used  to  hunt  in  common,  and  divided  the  spoil  without 
quarrelling  ;  that  they  never  abandoned  their  wounded, 
and  displayed  strong  affection  to  their  comrades. 
Lichtenstein  has  a  most  touching  story  about  a  Bush- 
man, nearly  drowned  in  a  river,  who  was  rescued  by 
his  companions.  They  took  off  their  furs  to  cover 
him,  and  shivered  themselves ;  they  dried  him,  rubbed 
him  before  the  fire,  and  smeared  his  body  with  warm 
grease  till  they  brought  him  back  to  life.  And  when 
the  Bushmen  found,  in  Johan  van  der  Walt,  a  man 
who  treated  them  well,  they  expressed  their  thankful- 
ness by  a  most  touching  attachment  to  that  man.2 
BurcheH  and  Moffat  both  represent  them  as  good- 
hearted,  disinterested,  true  to  their  promises,  and 
grateful,3  all  qualities  which  could  develop  only  by 
being  practised  within  the  tribe.  As  to  their  love  to 
children,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  when  a  European 
wished  to  secure  a  Bushman  woman  as  a  slave,  he 

1  Col.  Collins,  in  Philips'  Researches  in  South  Africa,  London, 
1828.  Quoted  by  Waitz,  ii.  334. 

-  Lichtenstein's  Reisen  im  siidlichen  Afrika,  ii.  pp.  92,  97.  Berlin, 
1811. 

3  Waitz,  Anthropologie  der  Naturvolker,  ii.  pp.  335  seq.  See  also 
Fritsch's  Die  Eingeboren  Africa's,  Breslau,  1872,  pp.  386^.;  and 
Drei  Jahre  in  Siid-Afrika.  Also  W.  Bleck,  A  Brief  Account  of 
Bushmen  Folklore,  Capetown,  1875. 


90  MUTUAL  AID 

istole  her  child  :    the  mother  was  sure  to  come  into 
slavery  to  share  the  fate  of  her  child.1 

The  same  social  manners  characterize  the  Hotten- 
tots, who  are  but  a  little  more  developed  than  the 
Bushmen.  Lubbock  describes  them  as  "  the  filthiest 
animals,"  and  filthy  they  really  are.  A  fur  suspended 
to  the  neck  and  worn  till  it  falls  to  pieces  is  all  their 
dress ;  their  huts  are  a  few  sticks  assembled  together 
and  covered  with  mats,  with  no  kind  of  furniture 
within.  And  though  they  kept  oxen  and  sheep,  and 
seem  to  have  known  the  use  of  iron  before  they  made 
acquaintance  with  the  Europeans,  they  still  occupy 
one  of  the  lowest  degrees  of  the  human  scale.  And 
yet  those  who  knew  them  highly  praised  their  socia- 
bility and  readiness  to  aid  each  other.  If  anything  is 
given  to  a  Hottentot,  he  at  once  divides  it  among  all 
present — a  habit  which,  as  is  known,  so  much  struck 
Darwin  among  the  Fuegians.  He  cannot  eat  alone, 
and,  however  hungry,  he  calls  those  who  pass  by  to 
•share  his  food.  And  when  Kolben  expressed  his 
astonishment  thereat,  he  received  the  answer  :  "  That 
is  Hottentot  manner."  But  this  is  not  Hottentot 
manner  only  :  it  is  an  all  but  universal  habit  among 
the  "savages."  Kolben,  who  knew  the  Hottentots 
well  and  did  not  pass  by  their  defects  in  silence,  could 
not  praise  their  tribal  morality  highly  enough. 

"  Their  word  is  sacred,"  he  wrote.  They  know  "  nothing 
of  the  corruptness  and  faithless  arts  of  Europe."  "  They  live 
in  great  tranquillity  and  are  seldom  at  war  with  their  neigh- 
bours." They  are  "  all  kindness  and  goodwill  to  one  another. 
.  .  .  One  of  the  greatest  pleasures  of  the  Hottentots  certainly 
lies  in  their  gifts  and  good  offices  to  one  another."  "  The 
integrity  of  the  Hottentots,  their  strictness  and  celerity  in  the 

1  Elis^e  Reclus,  Geographic  Universelle,  xiii.  475. 


MUTUAL  AID  AMONG   SAVAGES  91 

exercise  of  justice,  and  their  chastity,  are  things  in  which  they 
excel  all  or  most  nations  in  the  world. "  * 

Tachart,  Barrow,  and  Moodie 2  fully  confirm 
Kolben's  testimony.  Let  me  only  remark  that  when 
Kolben  wrote  that  "  they  are  certainly  the  most  friendly, 
the  most  liberal  and  the  most  benevolent  people 
to  one  another  that  ever  appeared  on  the  earth "  (i. 
332),  he  wrote  a  sentence  which  has  continually 
appeared  since  in  the  description  of  savages.  When 
first  meeting  with  primitive  races,  the  Europeans 
usually  make  a  caricature  of  their  life  ;  but  when  an 
intelligent  man  has  stayed  among  them  for  a  longer 
time,  he  generally  describes  them  as  the  "  kindest "  or 
"  the  gentlest  "  race  on  the  earth.  These  very  same 
words  have  been  applied  to  the  Ostyaks,  the  Samo- 
yedes,  the  Eskimos,  the  Dayaks,  the  Aleoutes,  the 
Papuas,  and  so  on,  by  the  highest  authorities.  I  also 
remember  having  read  them  applied  to  the  Tunguses, 
the  Tchuktchis,  the  Sioux,  and  several  others.  The 
very  frequency  of  that  high  commendation  already 
speaks  volumes  in  itself. 

The  natives  of  Australia  do  not  stand  on  a  higher 
level  of  development  than  their  South  African  brothers. 
Their  huts  are  of  the  same  character ;  very  often 
simple  screens  are  the  only  protection  against  cold 
winds.  In  their  food  they  are  most  indifferent :  they 
devour  horribly  putrefied  corpses,  and  cannibalism  is 
resorted  to  in  times  of  scarcity.  When  first  discovered 
by  Europeans,  they  had  no  implements  but  in  stone 
or  bone,  and  these  were  of  the  roughest  description. 

1  P.  Kolben,  The  Present  State  of  tJie  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  trans- 
lated from  the  German  by  Mr.  Medley,  London,  1731,  vol.  i.  pp.  59, 

71.  333.  336»  etc. 

2  Quoted  in  Waitz  s  Anthropologie>  ii.  335  seq. 


92  MUTUAL   AID 

Some  tribes  had  even  no  canoes,  and  did  not  know 

\barter-trade.      And    yet,    when    their    manners    and 

customs  were    carefully   studied,    they   proved  to  be 

living  under  that  elaborate  clan  organization  which   I 

:have  mentioned  on  a  preceding  page.1 

The  territory  they  inhabit  is  usually  allotted  between 
the  different  gentes  or  clans ;  but  the  hunting  and 
fishing  territories  of  each  clan  are  kept  in  common, 
and  the  produce  of  fishing  and  hunting  belongs  to  the 
whole  clan  ;  so  also  the  fishing  and  hunting  imple- 
ments.2 The  meals  are  taken  in  common.  Like 
many  other  savages,  they  respect  certain  regulations 
as  to  the  seasons  when  certain  gums  and  grasses  may 
be  collected.3  As  to  their  morality  altogether,  we 
cannot  do  better  than  transcribe  the  following  answers 
given  to  the  questions  of  the  Paris  Anthropological 
Society  by  Lumholtz,  a  missionary  who  sojourned  in 
North  Queensland  :  4 — 

I"  The  feeling  of  friendship  is  known  among  them  ;  it  is 
strong.  Weak  people  are  usually  supported  ;  sick  people  are 
very  well  attended  to ;  they  never  are  abandoned  or  killed. 
These  tribes  are  cannibals,  but  they  very  seldom  eat  members 
of  their  own  tribe  (when  immolated  on  religious  principles,  I 
suppose)  ;  they  eat  strangers  only.  The  parents  love  their 
children,  play  with  them,  and  pet  them.  Infanticide  meets 

1  The  natives  living  in  the  north  of  Sydney,  and  speaking  the 
Kamilaroi  language,  are  best  known  under  this  aspect,  through  the 
capital  work  of  Lorimer  Fison  and  A.  W.  Howitt,  Kamilaroi  and 
Kurnai,  Melbourne,  1880.     See  also  A.  W.  Howitt's  "  Further  Note 
on  the  Australian  Class  Systems,"  in  Journal  of  tJie  Anthropological 
Institute,  1889,  vol.  xviii.  p.  31,  showing  the  wide  extension  of  the 
same  organization  in  Australia. 

2  The  Folklore,  Manners,  etc.,  of  Australian  Aborigines,  Adelaide, 
1879,  p.  ii. 

3  Grey's  Journals  of  Two  Expeditions  of  Discovery  in  North- West 
and  Western  Australia,  London,  1841,  vol.  ii.  pp.  237,  298. 

4  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  d1  Anthropologie,  1888,  vol.  xi.  p.  652.     I 
abridge  the  answers. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  93 

with  common  approval.  Old  people  are  very  well  treated, 
never  put  to  death.  No  religion,  no  idols,  only  a  fear  of 
death.  Polygamous  marriage.  Quarrels  arising  within  the 
tribe  are  settled  by  means  of  duels  fought  with  wooden 
swords  and  shields.  No  slaves ;  no  culture  of  any  kind ;  no 
pottery ;  no  dress,  save  an  apron  sometimes  worn  by  women. 
The  clan  consists  of  two  hundred  individuals,  divided  into 
four  classes  of  men  and  four  of  women  ;  marriage  being  only 
permitted  within  the  usual  classes,  and  never  within  the  gens." 

For  the  Papuas,  closely  akin  to  the  above,  we  have 
the  testimony  of  G.  L.  Bink,  who  stayed  in  New 
Guinea,  chiefly  in  Geelwink  Bay,  from  1871  to  1883. 
Here  is  the  essence  of  his  answers  to  the  same 
questioner  : 1 — 

"  They  are  sociable  and  cheerful ;  they  laugh  very  much. 
Rather  timid  than  courageous.  Friendship  is  relatively  strong 
among  persons  belonging  to  different  tribes,  and  still  stronger 
within  the  tribe.  A  friend  will  often  pay  the  debt  of  his 
friend,  the  stipulation  being  that  the  latter  will  repay  it  with- 
out interest  to  the  children  of  the  lender.  They  take  care  of 
the  ill  and  the  old ;  old  people  are  never  abandoned,  and  in 
no  case  are  they  killed — unless  it  be  a  slave  who  was  ill  for 
a  long  time.  War  prisoners  are  sometimes  eaten.  The 
children  are  very  much  petted  and  loved.  Old  and  feeble  war 
prisoners  are  killed,  the  others  are  sold  as  slaves.  They  have 
no  religion,  no  gods,  no  idols,  no  authority  of  any  description  ; 
the  oldest  man  in  the  family  is  the  judge.  In  cases  of  adul-  • 
tery  a  fine  is  paid,  and  part  of  it  goes  to  the  negoria  (the ' 
community).  The  soil  is  kept  in  common,  but  the  crop 
belongs  to  those  who  have  grown  it.  They  have  pottery,  and 
know  barter-trade — the  custom  being  that  the  merchant  gives 
them  the  goods,  whereupon  they  return  to  their  houses  and 
bring  the  native  goods  required  by  the  merchant ;  if  the 
latter  cannot  be  obtained,  the  European  goods  are  returned.2 
They  are  head-hunters,  and  in  so  doing  they  prosecute  blood 

1  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  £ Anthropologie,  1888,  vol.  xi.  p.  386. 

2  The  same  is  the  practice  with  the  Papuas  of  Kaimani  Bay,  who 
have  a  high  reputation  of  honesty.     "  It  never  happens  that  the 
Papua  be  untrue  to  his  promise,"  Finsch  says  in  Neuguinea  und  seine 
Bewohner,  Bremen,  1865,  p.  829. 


94  MUTUAL   AID 

revenge.  'Sometimes,'  Finsch  says,  'the  affair  is  referred 
to  the  Rajah  of  Namototte,  who  terminates  it  by  imposing  a 
fine.' " 

When  well  treated,  the  Papuas  are  very  kind. 
Miklukho-Maclay  landed  on  the  eastern  coast  of  New 
Guinea,  followed  by  one  single  man,  stayed  for  two 
years  among  tribes  reported  to  be  cannibals,  and  left 
them  with  regret ;  he  returned  again  to  stay  one  year 
more  among  them,  and  never  had  he  any  conflict  to 
complain  of.  True  that  his  rule  was  never — under  no 
pretext  whatever — to  say  anything  which  was  not 
truth,  nor  make  any  promise  which  he  could  not  keep. 
These  poor  creatures,  who  even  do  not  know  how  to 
obtain  fire,  and  carefully  maintain  it  in  their  huts,  live 
under  their  primitive  communism,  without  any  chiefs  ; 
and  within  their  villages  they  have  no  quarrels  worth 
.speaking  of.  They  work  in  common,  just  enough  to 
'get  the  food  of  the  day  ;  they  rear  their  children  in 
common  ;  and  in  the  evenings  they  dress  themselves 
as  coquettishly  as  they  can,  and  dance.  Like  all 
savages,  they  are  fond  of  dancing.  Each  village  has 
its  barla,  or  balai — the  "  long  house,"  "  longue  maison," 
or  "grande  maison" — for  the  unmarried  men,  for 
social  gatherings,  and  for  the  discussion  of  common 
affairs — again  a  trait  which  is  common  to  most  inhabit- 
ants of  the  Pacific  Islands,  the  Eskimos,  the  Red 
Indians,  and  so  on.  Whole  groups  of  villages  are  on 
friendly  terms,  and  visit  each  other  en  bloc. 

Unhappily,  feuds  are  not  uncommon — not  in  con- 
sequence of  "  overstocking  of  the  area,"  or  "  keen 
competition,"  and  like  inventions  of  a  mercantile  cen- 
tury, but  chiefly  in  consequence  of  superstition.  As 
soon  as  any  one  falls  ill,  his  friends  and  relatives  come 
together,  and  deliberately  discuss  who  might  be  the 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  95 

cause  of  the  illness.  All  possible  enemies  are  con- 
sidered, every  one  confesses  of  his  own  petty  quarrels, 
and  finally  the  real  cause  is  discovered.  An  enemy 
from  the  next  village  has  called  it  down,  and  a  raid 
upon  that  village  is  decided  upon.  Therefore,  feuds 
are  rather  frequent,  even  between  the  coast  villages, 
not  to  say  a  word  of  the  cannibal  mountaineers  who 
are  considered  as  real  witches  and  enemies,  though, 
on  a  closer  acquaintance,  they  prove  to  be  exactly  the 
same  sort  of  people  as  their  neighbours  on  the  sea- 
coast.1 

Many  striking  pages  could  be  written  about  the 
harmony  which  prevails  in  the  villages  of  the  Poly- 
nesian inhabitants  of  the  Pacific  Islands.  But  they 
belong  to  a  more  advanced  stage  of  civilization.  So 
we  shall  now  take  our  illustrations  from  the  far  north. 
I  must  mention,  however,  before  leaving  the  Southern 
Hemisphere,  that  even  the  Fuegians,  whose  reputation 
has  been  so  bad,  appear  under  a  much  better  light 
since  they  begin  to  be  better  known.  A  few  French 
missionaries  who  stay  among  them  "  know  of  no  act 
of  malevolence  to  complain  of."  In  their  clans, ' 
consisting  of  from  120  to  150  souls,  they  practise  the 
same  primitive  communism  as  the  Papuas  ;  they  share 
everything  in  common,  and  treat  their  old  people  very 
well.  Peace  prevails  among  these  tribes.2 

With  the  Eskimos  and  their  nearest  congeners,  the 
Thlinkets,  the  Koloshes,  and  the  Aleoutes,  we  find 
one  of  the  nearest  illustrations  of  what  man  may  have 
been  during  the  glacial  age.  Their  implements  hardly 

1  Izvestia  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society,  1880,  pp.  161  seq. 
Few  books  of  travel  give  a  better  insight  into  the  petty  details  of  the 
daily  life  of  savages  than  these  scraps  from  Maklay"s  note-books. 

2  L.  F.  Martial,  in  Mission  Scientifique  au  Cap  Horn,  Paris,  1883, 
vol.  i.  pp.  183-201. 


96  MUTUAL   AID 

differ  from  those  of  palaeolithic  man,  and  some  of  their 
tribes  do  not  yet  know  fishing :  they  simply  spear  the 
fish  with  a  kind  of  harpoon.1  They  know  the  use  of 
iron,  but  they  receive  it  from  the  Europeans,  or  find  it 
on  wrecked  ships.  Their  social  organization  is  of  a 
very  primitive  kind,  though  they  already  have  emerged 
from  the  stage  of  "  communal  marriage,"  even  under 
the  gentile  restrictions.  They  live  in  families,  but  the 
family  bonds  are  often  broken  ;  husbands  and  wives 
are  often  exchanged.2  The  families,  however,  remain 
i  united  in  clans,  and  how  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  How 
could  they  sustain  the  hard  struggle  for  life  unless  by 
closely  combining  their  forces  ?  So  they  do,  and  the 
tribal  bonds  are  closest  where  the  struggle  for  life 
is  hardest,  namely,  in  North-East  Greenland.  The 
•"  long  house "  is  their  usual  dwelling,  and  several 
families  lodge  in  it,  separated  from  each  other  by  small 
partitions  of  ragged  furs,  with  a  common  passage  in 
the  front.  Sometimes  the  house  has  the  shape  of  a 
cross,  and  in  such  case  a  common  fire  is  kept  in  the 
centre.  The  German  Expedition  which  spent  a  winter 

close  by  one  of  those  "  long  houses  "  could  ascertain 

. 
that  "  no  quarrel  disturbed  the  peace,  no  dispute  arose 

i  about  the  use  of  this  narrow  space  "  throughout  the 
long  winter.  "Scolding,  or  even  unkind  words,  are 
considered  as  a  misdemeanour,  if  not  produced  under 
the  legal  form  of  process,  namely,  the  nith-song."3 
Close  cohabitation  and  close  interdependence  are 

1  Captain  Holm's  Expedition  to  East  Greenland. 

2  In  Australia  whole  clans  have  been  seen  exchanging  all  their 
wives,  in  order  to  conjure  a  calamity  (Post,  Studien  zur  Entwick- 
lungsgeschichte  des  Familienrechts^  1890,  p.  342).     More  brotherhood 
is  their  specific  against  calamities. 

8  Dr.  H.  Rink,  The  Eskimo  Tribes,  p.  26  (Meddelelser  om   Gron- 
land,  vol.  xi.  1887). 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  97 

sufficient  for  maintaining  century  after  century  that 
deep  respect  for  the  interests  of  the  community  which 
is  characteristic  of  Eskimo  life.  Even  in  the  larger 
communities  of  Eskimos,  "  public  opinion  formed  the 
real  judgment-seat,  the  general  punishment  consisting 
in  the  offenders  being  shamed  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people."  l 

Eskimo  life  is  based  upon   communism.     What  is; 
obtained  by  hunting  and  fishing  belongs  to  the  clan.  \ 
But  in  several   tribes,  especially  in  the  West,  under  • 
the   influence  of  the    Danes,  private   property  pene-i 
trates  into  their  institutions.     However,  they  have  an 
original  means  for  obviating  the  inconveniences  arising 
from  a  personal  accumulation  of  wealth  which  would 
soon    destroy  their   tribal    unity.     When   a   man  has 
grown  rich,  he  convokes  the  folk  of  his  clan  to  a  great 
festival,    and,   after   much    eating,    distributes    among 
them  all  his  fortune.     On  the  Yukon  river,  Ball  saw 
an  Aleoute  family  distributing  in  this  way  ten  guns, 
ten  full  fur  dresses,    200  strings  of  beads,  numerous 
blankets,  ten  wolf  furs,  200  beavers,  and  500  zibelines. 
After  that  they  took  off  their  festival  dresses,  gave 
them  away,  and,  putting  on  old  ragged  furs,  addressed 
a  few  words  to  their  kinsfolk,  saying  that  though  they 
are  now  poorer  than  any  one  of  them,  they  have  won 
their  friendship.2     Like  distributions  of  wealth  appear 

1  Dr.  Rink,  loc.  cit.  p.  24.     Europeans,  grown  in  the  respect  of 
Roman  law,  are  seldom  capable  of  understanding  that  force  of  tribal 
authority.     "  In  fact,"  Dr.  Rink  writes,  "  it  is  not  the  exception,  but 
the  rule,  that  white  men  who  have  stayed  for  ten  or  twenty  years 
among  the  Eskimo,  return  without  any  real  addition  to  their  know- 
ledge of  the  traditional  ideas  upon  which  their  social  state  is  based. 
The  white  man,  whether  a  missionary  or  a  trader,  is  firm  in  his 
dogmatic  opinion  that  the  most  vulgar  European  is  better  than  the 
most  distinguished  native." — The  Eskimo  Tribes,  p.  31. 

2  Dall,  Alaska  and  its  Resources,  Cambridge,  U.S.,  1870. 

H 


98  MUTUAL  AID 

to  be  a  regular  habit  with  the  Eskimos,  and  to  take 
place  at  a  certain  season,  after  an  exhibition  of  all  that 
has  been  obtained  during  the  year.1  In  my  opinion 
these  distributions  reveal  a  very  old  institution,  con- 
temporaneous with  the  first  apparition  of  personal 
wealth ;  they  must  have  been  a  means  for  re-estab- 
lishing equality  among  the  members  of  the  clan,  after 
it  had  been  disturbed  by  the  enrichment  of  the  few. 
/The  periodical  redistribution  of  land  and  the  periodical 
,abandonment  of  all  debts  which  took  place  in  historical 
<  times  with  so  many  different  races  (Semites,  Aryans, 
etc.),  must  have  been  a  survival  of  that  old  custom. 
And  the  habit  of  either  burying  with  the  dead,  or 
destroying  upon  his  grave,  all  that  belonged  to  him 
personally — a  habit  which  we  find  among  all  primitive 
races — must  have  had  the  same  origin.  In  fact,  while 
everything  that  belongs  personally  to  the  dead  is 
burnt  or  broken  upon  his  grave,  nothing  is  destroyed 
of  what  belonged  to  him  in  common  with  the  tribe, 
such  as  boats,  or  the  communal  implements  of  fishing. 
The  destruction  bears  upon  personal  property  alone. 
At  a  later  epoch  this  habit  becomes  a  religious  cere- 
mony :  it  receives  a  mystical  interpretation,  and  is 
imposed  by  religion,  when  public  opinion  alone  proves 
incapable  of  enforcing  its  general  observance.  And, 
finally,  it  is  substituted  by  either  burning  simple 
models  of  the  dead  man's  property  (as  in  China),  or 
by  simply  carrying  his  property  to  the  grave  and 

1  Dall  saw  it  in  Alaska,  Jacobsen  at  Ignitok  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Bering  Strait.  Gilbert  Sproat  mentions  it  among  the  Vancouver 
Indians ;  and  Dr.  Rink,  who  describes  the  periodical  exhibitions 
just  mentioned,  adds :  "  The  principal  use  of  the  accumulation  of 
personal  wealth  is  to* periodically  distributing  it"  He  also  mentions 
(loc.  cit.  p.  31)  "the  destruction  of  property  for  the  same  purpose" 
(of  maintaining  equality). 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  SAVAGES  99 

taking  it  back  to  his  house  after  the  burial  ceremony 
is  over — a  habit  which  still  prevails  with  the  Euro- 
peans as  regards  swords,  crosses,  and  other  marks  of 
public  distinction.1 

The  high  standard  of  the  tribal  morality  of  the 
Eskimos  has  often  been  mentioned  in  general  liter- 
ature. Nevertheless  the  following  remarks  upon  the 
manners  of  the  Aleoutes — nearly  akin  to  the  Eskimos 
—will  better  illustrate  savage  morality  as  a  whole. 
They  were  written,  after  a  ten  years'  stay  among  the 
Aleoutes,  by  a  most  remarkable  man — the  Russian 
missionary,  Veniaminoff.  I  sum  them  up,  mostly  in 
his  own  words  : — 

Endurability  (he  wrote)  is  their  chief  feature.  It  is  simply 
colossal.  Not  only  do  they  bathe  every  morning  in  the  frozen 
sea,  and  stand  naked  on  the  beach,  inhaling  the  icy  wind,  but 
their  endurability,  even  when  at  hard  work  on  insufficient 
food,  surpasses  all  that  can  be  imagined.  During  a  protracted 
scarcity  of  food,  the  Aleoute  cares  first  for  his  children ;  he 
gives  them  all  he  has,  and  himself  fasts.  They  are  not 
inclined  to  stealing ;  that  was  remarked  even  by  the  first 
Russian  immigrants.  Not  that  they  never  steal ;  every 
Aleoute  would  confess  having  sometime  stolen  something, 
but  it  is  always  a  trifle;  the  whole  is  so  childish.  The 
attachment  of  the  parents  to  their  children  is  touching, 
though  it  is  never  expressed  in  words  or  pettings.  The 
Aleoute  is  with  difficulty  moved  to  make  a  promise,  but  once 
he  has  made  it  he  will  keep  it  whatever  may  happen.  (An 
Aleoute  made  Veniaminoff  a  gift  of  dried  fish,  but  it  was 
forgotten  on  the  beach  in  the  hurry  of  the  departure.  He 
took  it  home.  The  next  occasion  to  send  it  to  the  missionary 
was  in  January  ;  and  in  November  and  December  there  was 
a  great  scarcity  of  food  in  the  Aleoute  encampment.  But 
the  fish  was  never  touched  by  the  starving  people,  and  in 
January  it  was  sent  to  its  destination.)  Their  code  of 
morality  is  both  varied  and  severe.  It  is  considered  shame- 
ful to  be  afraid  of  unavoidable  death ;  to  ask  pardon  from 
an  enemy ;  to  die  without  ever  having  killed  an  enemy  ;  to 

1  See  Appendix  VIII, 


ioo  MUTUAL  AID 

be  convicted  of  stealing ;  to  capsize  a  boat  in  the  harbour ; 
to  be  afraid  of  going  to  sea  in  stormy  weather  ;  to  be  the 
first  in  a  party  on  a  long  journey  to  become  an  invalid  in 
case  of  scarcity  of  food  ;  to  show  greediness  when  spoil  is 
divided,  in  which  case  every  one  gives  his  own  part  to  the 
greedy  man  to  shame  him ;  to  divulge  a  public  secret  to  his 
wife  ;  being  two  persons  on  a  hunting  expedition,  not  to  offer 
the  best  game  to  the  partner ;  to  boast  of  his  own  deeds, 
especially  of  invented  ones  ;  to  scold  any  one  in  scorn.  Also 
to  beg;  to  pet  his  wife  in  other  people's  presence,  and  to 
dance  with  her ;  to  bargain  personally :  selling  must  always 
be  made  through  a  third  person,  who  settles  the  price.  For 
a  woman  it  is  a  shame  not  to  know  sewing,  dancing  and  all 
kinds  of  woman's  work  ;  to  pet  her  husband  and  children,  or 
even  to  speak  to  her  husband  in  the  presence  of  a  stranger.1 

Such  is  Aleoute  morality,  which  might  also  be 
further  illustrated  by  their  tales  and  legends.  Let 
me  also  add  that  when  Veniaminoff  wrote  (in  1840) 
one  murder  only  had  been  committed  since  the  last 
century  in  a  population  of  60,000  people,  and  that 
among  1,800  Aleoutes  not  one  single  common  law 
offence  had  been  known  for  forty  years.  This  will 
not  seem  strange  if  we  remark  that  scolding,  scorning, 
and  the  use  of  rough  words  are  absolutely  unknown 
in  Aleoute  life.  Even  their  children  never  fight, 
and  never  abuse  each  other  in  words.  All  they  may 
say  is,  "  Your  mother  does  not  know  sewing,"  or 
"Your  father  is  blind  of  one  eye."2 

1  Veniaminoff,    Memoirs   relative   to   the   District  of    Unalashka 
(Russian),  3  vols.  St.  Petersburg,  1840.     Extracts,  in  English,  from 
the  above  are  given  in   Ball's  Alaska.     A  like  description  of  the 
Australians'  morality  is  given  in  Nature,  xlii.  p.  639. 

2  It  is  most  remarkable  that  several  writers  (Middendorff,  Schrenk, 
O.  Finsch)  described  the  Ostyaks  and  Samoyedes  in  almost  the 
same  words.     Even  when  drunken,  their  quarrels  are  insignificant. 
"  For  a  hundred  years  one  single  murder  has  been  committed  in  the 
tundra;"  "their  children  never  fight;"  "anything  may  be  left  for 
years  in  the  tundra,  even  food  and  gin,  and  nobody  will  touch  it ; " 
and  so  on.     Gilbert  Sproat  "  never  witnessed  a  fight  between  two 
sober  natives  "  of  the  Aht  Indians  of  Vancouver  Island.     "  Quarrel- 
ling is  also  rare  among  their  children."     (Rink,  loc.  cit.)    And  so  on. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  101 

Many  features  of  savage  life  remain,  however,  a 
puzzle  to  Europeans.  The  high  development  of  tribal 
solidarity  and  the  good  feelings  with  which  primitive 
folk  are  animated  towards  each  other,  could  be  illus- 
trated by  any  amount  of  reliable  testimony.  And  yet 
it  is  not  the  less  certain  that  those  same  savages 
practise  infanticide  ;  that  in  some  cases  they  abandon 
their  old  people,  and  that  they  blindly  obey  the  rules  j 
of  blood-revenge.  We  must  then  explain  the  co- 
existence of  facts  which,  to  the  European  mind,  seem 
so  contradictory  at  the  first  sight.  I  have  just  men- 
tioned how  the  Aleoute  father  starves  for  days  and 
weeks,  and  gives  everything  eatable  to  his  child ;  and 
how  the  Bushman  mother  becomes  a  slave  to  follow 
her  child ;  and  I  might  fill  pages  with  illustrations  of 
the  really  tender  relations  existing  among  the  savages 
and  their  children.  Travellers  continually  mention 
them  incidentally.  Here  you  read  about  the  fond 
love  of  a  mother ;  there  you  see  a  father  wildly 
running  through  the  forest  and  carrying  upon  his 
shoulders  his  child  bitten  by  a  snake ;  or  a  missionary 
tells  you  the  despair  of  the  parents  at  the  loss  of  a 
child  whom  he  had  saved,  a  few  years  before,  from 
being  immolated  at  its  birth ;  you  learn  that  the 
"  savage  "  mothers  usually  nurse  their  children  till  the 
age  of  four,  and  that,  in  the  New  Hebrides,  on  the 
loss  of  a  specially  beloved  child,  its  mother,  or  aunt, 
will  kill  herself  to  take  care  of  it  in  the  other  world.1 
And  so  on. 

Like  facts  are  met  with  by  the  score ;  so  that, 
when  we  see  that  these  same  loving  parents  practise 

1  Gill,  quoted  in  Gerland  and  Waitz's  Anthropologie,  v.  641.  See 
also  pp.  636-640,  where  many  facts  of  parental  and  filial  love  are 
quoted. 


102  MUTUAL  AID 

infanticide,  we  are  bound  to  recognize  that  the  habit 
(whatever  its  ulterior  transformations  may  be)  took 
its  origin  under  the  sheer  pressure  of  necessity,  as  an 
obligation  towards  the  tribe,  and  a  means  for  rearing 
the  already  growing  children.  The  savages,  as  a  rule, 
do  not  "multiply  without  stint,"  as  some  English 
writers  put  it.  On  the  contrary,  they  take  all  kinds 
of  measures  for  diminishing  the  birth-rate.  A  whole 
series  of  restrictions,  which  Europeans  certainly  would 
find  extravagant,  are  imposed  to  that  effect,  and  they 
are  strictly  obeyed.  But  notwithstanding  that,  primi- 
tive folk  cannot  rear  all  their  children.  However,  it 
has  been  remarked  that  as  soon  as  they  succeed  in 
increasing  their  regular  means  of  subsistence,  they 
at  once  begin  to  abandon  the  practice  of  infanticide. 
On  the  whole,  the  parents  obey  that  obligation  reluct- 
antly, and  as  soon  as  they  can  afford  it  they  resort  to 
all  kinds  of  compromises  to  save  the  lives  of  their 
new-born.  As  has  been  so  well  pointed  out  by  my 
friend  Elie  Reclus,1  they  invent  the  lucky  and  unlucky 
days  of  births,  and  spare  the  children  born  on  the  lucky 
days ;  they  try  to  postpone  the  sentence  for  a  few 
hours,  and  then  say  that  if  the  baby  has  lived  one  day 
it  must  live  all  its  natural  life.2  They  hear  the  cries 
of  the  little  ones  coming  from  the  forest,  and  maintain 
;  that,  if  heard,  they  forbode  a  misfortune  for  the  tribe ; 
and  as  they  have  no  baby-farming  nor  creches  for  get- 
ting rid  of  the  children,  every  one  of  them  recoils 
before  the  necessity  of  performing  the  cruel  sentence ; 
they  prefer  to  expose  the  baby  in  the  wood  rather 
than  to  take  its  life  by  violence.  Ignorance,  not 
cruelty,  maintains  infanticide ;  and,  instead  of  moraliz- 

1  Primitive  Folk,  London,  1891. 

2  Gerland,  loc.  at.  v.  636. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  103 

ing  the  savages  with  sermons,  the  missionaries  would 
do  better  to  follow  the  example  of  Veniaminoff,  who,  I 
every  year  till  his  old  age,  crossed  the  sea  of  Okhotsk 
in  a  miserable  boat,  or  travelled  on  dogs  among  his 
Tchuktchis,  supplying  them  with  bread  and  fishing 
implements.  He  thus  had  really  stopped  infanticide.  I 
The  same  is  true  as  regards  what  superficial 
observers  describe  as  parricide.  We  just  now  saw 
that  the  habit  of  abandoning  old  people  is  not  so 
widely  spread  as  some  writers  have  maintained  it  to 
be.  It  has  been  extremely  exaggerated,  but  it  is 
occasionally  met  with  among  nearly  all  savages ;  \ 
and  in  such  cases  it  has  the  same  origin  as  the 
exposure  of  children.  When  a  "  savage "  feels  that  '• 
he  is  a  burden  to  his  tribe ;  when  every  morning 
his  share  of  food  is  taken  from  the  mouths  of  the 
children — and  the  little  ones  are  not  so  stoical  as  their 
fathers  :  they  cry  when  they  are  hungry  ;  when  every 
day  he  has  to  be  carried  across  the  stony  beach,  or 
the  virgin  forest,  on  the  shoulders  of  younger  people — 
there  are  no  invalid  carriages,  nor  destitutes  to  wheel 
them  in  savage  lands — he  begins  to  repeat  what  the 
old  Russian  peasants  say  until  now-a-day  :  "  Tchujoi 
vek  zayedayu,  Pora  na  pokoi  /"  ("  I  live  other  people's 
life :  it  is  time  to  retire ! ")  And  he  retires.  He 
does  what  the  soldier  does  in  a  similar  case.  When 
the  salvation  of  his  detachment  depends  upon  its 
further  advance,  and  he  can  move  no  more,  and  knows 
that  he  must  die  if  left  behind,  the  soldier  implores 
his  best  friend  to  render  him  the  last  service  before 
leaving  the  encampment.  And  the  friend,  with  shiver- 
ing hands,  discharges  his  gun  into  the  dying  body. 
So  the  savages  do.  The  old  man  asks  himself  to  die  ; ', 
he  himself  insists  upon  this  last  duty  towards  the 


104  MUTUAL  AID 

community,  and  obtains  the  consent  of  the  tribe  ;  he 
digs  out  his  grave ;  he  invites  his  kinsfolk  to  the  last 
parting  meal.  His  father  has  done  so,  it  is  now  his 
turn  ;  and  he  parts  with  his  kinsfolk  with  marks  of 
affection.  The  savage  so  much  considers  death  as 
part  of  his  duties  towards  his  community,  that  he  not 
only  refuses  to  be  rescued  (as  Moffat  has  told),  but 
when  a  woman  who  had  to  be  immolated  on  her 
husband's  grave  was  rescued  by  missionaries,  and  was 
taken  to  an  island,  she  escaped  in  the  night,  crossed 
a  broad  sea-arm,  swimming  and  rejoined  her  tribe,  to 
die  on  the  grave.1  It  has  become  with  them  a  matter 
of  religion.  But  the  savages,  as  a  rule,  are  so  reluctant 
to  take  any  one's  life  otherwise  than  in  fight,  that  none 
of  them  will  take  upon  himself  to  shed  human  blood,  and 
they  resort  to  all  kinds  of  stratagems,  which  have  been 
so  falsely  interpreted.  In  most  cases,  they  abandon 
the  old  man  in  the  wood,  after  having  given  him  more 
than  his  share  of  the  common  food.  Arctic  expeditions 
have  done  the  same  when  they  no  more  could  carry 
their  invalid  comrades.  "  Live  a  few  days  more ! 
may  be  there  will  be  some  unexpected  rescue ! " 

West  European  men  of  science,  when  coming  across 
these  facts,  are  absolutely  unable  to  stand  them  ;  they 
cannot  reconcile  them  with  a  high  development  of 
tribal  morality,  and  they  prefer  to  cast  a  doubt  upon 
the  exactitude  of  absolutely  reliable  observers,  instead 
of  trying  to  explain  the  parallel  existence  of  the  two 
sets  of  facts  :  a  high  tribal  morality  together  with  the 
abandonment  of  the  parents  and  infanticide.  But  if 
these  same  Europeans  were  to  tell  a  savage  that 
people,  extremely  amiable,  fond  of  their  own  children, 
and  so  impressionable  that  they  cry  when  they  see  a 

1  Erskine,  quoted  in  Gerland  and  Waltz's  Anthropologie,  v.  640. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  105 

misfortune  simulated  on  the  stage,  are  living  in  Europe 
within  a  stone's  throw  from  dens  in  which  children 
die  from  sheer  want  of  food,  the  savage,  too,  would 
not  understand  them.  I  remember  how  vainly  I  tried 
to  make  some  of  my  Tungus  friends  understand  our 
civilization  of  individualism  :  they  could  not,  and  they 
resorted  to  the  most  fantastical  suggestions.  The 
fact  is  that  a  savage,  brought  up  in  ideas  of  a  tribal 
solidarity  in  everything  for  bad  and  for  good,  is  as 
incapable  of  understanding  a  "  moral "  European,  who 
knows  nothing  of  that  solidarity,  as  the  average 
European  is  incapable  of  understanding  the  savage. 
But  if  our  scientist  had  lived  amidst  a  half-starving 
tribe  which  does  not  possess  among  them  all  one 
man's  food  for  so  much  as  a  few  days  to  come,  he 
probably  might  have  understood  their  motives.  So 
also  the  savage,  if  he  had  stayed  among  us,  and 
received  our  education,  may  be,  would  understand  our 
European  indifference  towards  our  neighbours,  and  our 
Royal  Commissions  for  the  prevention  of  "baby- 
farming."  "  Stone  houses  make  stony  hearts,"  the 
Russian  peasants  say.  But  he  ought  to  live  in  a 
stone  house  first 

Similar  remarks  must  be  made  as  regards  cannibal- 
ism. Taking  into  account  all  the  facts  which  were 
brought  to  light  during  a  recent  controversy  on  this 
subject  at  the  Paris  Anthropological  Society,  and 
many  incidental  remarks  scattered  throughout  the 
"  savage "  literature,  we  are  bound  to  recognize  that 
that  practice  was  brought  into  existence  by  sheer 
necessity  ;  but  that  it  was  further  developed  by  super- 
stition and  religion  into  the  proportions  it  attained  in 
Fiji  or  in  Mexico.  It  is  a  fact  that  until  this  day| 
many  savages  are  compelled  to  devour  corpses  in  the ; 


MUTUAL  AID 

most  advanced  state  of  putrefaction,  and  that  in 
cases  of  absolute  scarcity  some  of  them  have  had  to 
disinter  and  to  feed  upon  human  corpses,  even  during 
an  epidemic.  These  are  ascertained  facts.  But  if 
we  now  transport  ourselves  to  the  conditions  which 
man  had  to  face  during  the  glacial  period,  in  a  damp 
and  cold  climate,  with  but  little  vegetable  food  at  his 
disposal ;  if  we  take  into  account  the  terrible  ravages 
which  scurvy  still  makes  among  underfed  natives,  and 
remember  that  meat  and  fresh  blood  are  the  only 
restoratives  which  they  know,  we  must  admit  that 
man,  who  formerly  was  a  granivorous  animal,  became 
a  flesh-eater  during  the  glacial  period.  He  found 
plenty  of  deer  at  that  time,  but  deer  often  migrate 
in  the  Arctic  regions,  and  sometimes  they  entirely 
abandon  a  territory  for  a  number  of  years.  In  such 
cases  his  last  resources  disappeared.  During  like 
hard  trials,  cannibalism  has  been  resorted  to  even  by 
Europeans,  and  it  was  resorted  to  by  the  savages. 
Until  the  present  time,  they  occasionally  devour  the 
corpses  of  their  own  dead  :  they  must  have  devoured 
then  the  corpses  of  those  who  had  to  die.  Old  people 
died,  convinced  that  by  their  death  they  were  render- 
ing a  last  service  to  the  tribe.  This  is  why  cannibal- 
ism is  represented  by  some  savages  as  of  divine  origin, 
as  something  that  has  been  ordered  by  a  messenger 
from  the  sky.  But  later  on  it  lost  its  character  of 
necessity,  and  survived  as  a  superstition.  Enemies 
had  to  be  eaten  in  order  to  inherit  their  courage  ;  and, 
at  a  still  later  epoch,  the  enemy's  eye  or  heart  was 
eaten  for  the  same  purpose  ;  while  among  other  tribes, 
already  having  a  numerous  priesthood  and  a  developed 
mythology,  evil  gods,  thirsty  for  human  blood,  were 
invented,  and  human  sacrifices  required  by  the  priests 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  SAVAGES  107 

to  appease  the  gods.  In  this  religious  phase  of  its 
existence,  cannibalism  attained  its  most  revolting 
characters.  Mexico  is  a  well-known  example  ;  and  in 
Fiji,  where  the  king  could  eat  any  one  of  his  subjects, 
we  also  find  a  mighty  cast  of  priests,  a  complicated 
theology,1  and  a  full  development  of  autocracy. 
Originated  by  necessity,  cannibalism  became,  at  a 
later  period,  a  religious  institution,  and  in  this  form 
it  survived  long  after  it  had  disappeared  from  among 
tribes  which  certainly  practised  it  in  former  times, 
but  did  not  attain  the  theocratical  stage  of  evolution. 
The  same  remark  must  be  made  as  regards  infanticide 
and  the  abandonment  of  parents.  In  some  cases  they 
also  have  been  maintained  as  a  survival  of  olden 
times,  as  a  religiously-kept  tradition  of  the  past. 

I  will  terminate  my  remarks  by  mentioning  another 
custom  which  also  is  a  source  of  most  erroneous  con- 
clusions. I  mean  the  practice  of  blood-revenge.  All 
savages  are  under  the  impression  that  blood  shed  must 
be  revenged  by  blood.  If  any  one  has  been  killed, 
the  murderer  must  die  ;  if  any  one  has  been  wounded, 
the  aggressor's  blood  must  be  shed.  There  is  no 
exception  to  the  rule,  not  even  for  animals ;  so  the 
hunter's  blood  is  shed  on  his  return  to  the  village 
when  he  has  shed  the  blood  of  an  animal.  That  is 
the  savages'  conception  of  justice — a  conception  which 
yet  prevails  in  Western  Europe  as  regards  murder. 
Now,  when  both  the  offender  and  the  offended  belong 
to  the  same  tribe,  the  tribe  and  the  offended  person 
settle  the  affair.2  But  when  the  offender  belongs  to 

1  W.    T.    Pritchard,    Polynesian    Reminiscences,    London,    1866, 

P-  363- 

2  It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  in  case  of  a  sentence  of  death, 
nobody  will  take  upon  himself  to  be  the  executioner.     Every  one 


io8  MUTUAL  AID 

another  tribe,  and  that  tribe,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
refuses  a  compensation,  then  the  offended  tribe  decides 
to  take  the  revenge  itself.  Primitive  folk  so  much 
consider  every  one's  acts  as  a  tribal  affair,  dependent 
upon  tribal  approval,  that  they  easily  think  the  clan 
responsible  for  every  one's  acts.  Therefore,  the  due 
revenge  may  be  taken  upon  any  member  of  the 
offender's  clan  or  relatives.1  It  may  often  happen, 
however,  that  the  retaliation  goes  further  than  the 
offence.  In  trying  to  inflict  a  wound,  they  may  kill 
the  offender,  or  wound  him  more  than  they  intended 
to  do,  and  this  becomes  a  cause  for  a  new  feud,  so 
that  the  primitive  legislators  were  careful  in  requiring 
the  retaliation  to  be  limited  to  an  eye  for  an  eye,  a 
tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  blood  for  blood.2 

It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  with  most  primitive 
folk  like  feuds  are  infinitely  rarer  than  might  be 
expected ;  though  with  some  of  them  they  may  attain 
abnormal  proportions,  especially  with  mountaineers 

throws   his   stone,  or  gives   his   blow   with   the   hatchet,  carefully 

avoiding  to  give  a  mortal  blow.     At  a  later  epoch,  the  priest  will 

stab  the  victim  with  a  sacred  knife.     Still  later,  it  will  be  the  king, 

until  civilization  invents  the  hired   hangman.      See  Bastian's  deep 

remarks  upon  this  subject  in  Der  Mensch  in  der  Geschichte,  iii.  Die 

Blutrache,  pp.   1-36.     A  remainder  of  this  tribal  habit,  I  am  told 

|  by  Professor  E.  Nys,  has  survived  in  military  executions  till  our  own 

times.     In  the  middle  portion  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  the 

<  habit  to  load  the  rifles  of  the  twelve  soldiers  called  out  for  shooting 

/  the  condemned  victim,  with   eleven  ball-cartridges  and   one  blank 

•  cartridge.     As  the  soldiers  never  knew  who  of  them  had  the  latter, 

\  each  one  could  console  his  disturbed  conscience  by  thinking  that 

;  he  was  not  one  of  the  murderers. 

1  In  Africa,  and  elsewhere  too,  it  is  a  widely-spread  habit,  that 
if  a  theft  has  been  committed,  the  next  clan  has  to  restore  the 
equivalent  of  the  stolen  thing,  and  then  look  itself  for  the  thief. 
A.  H.  Post,  Afrikanische  Jurisprudenz,  Leipzig,  1887,  vol.  i.  p.  77. 

2  See  Prof.  M.  Kovalevsky's  Modern  Customs  and  Ancient  Law 
(Russian),  Moscow,  1886,  vol.  ii.,  which  contains  many  important 
considerations  upon  this  subject. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  109 

who  have  been  driven  to  the  highlands  by  foreign 
invaders,  such  as  the  mountaineers  of  Caucasia,  and 
especially  those  of  Borneo — the  Dayaks.  With  the 
Dayaks — we  were  told  lately — the  feuds  had  gone  so 
far  that  a  young  man  could  neither  marry  nor  be 
proclaimed  of  age  before  he  had  secured  the  head 
of  an  enemy.  This  horrid  practice  was  fully  described 
in  a  modern  English  work.1  It  appears,  however, 
that  this  affirmation  was  a  gross  exaggeration.  More- 
over, Dayak  "head-hunting"  takes  quite  another 
aspect  when  we  learn  that  the  supposed  "  head- 
hunter"  is  not  actuated  at  all  by  personal  passion. 
He  acts  under  what  he  considers  as  a  moral  obligation 
towards  his  tribe,  just  as  the  European  judge  who,  in 
obedience  to  the  same,  evidently  wrong,  principle  of 
"  blood  for  blood,"  hands  over  the  condemned  murderer 
to  the  hangman.  Both  the  Dayak  and  the  judge 
would  even  feel  remorse  if  sympathy  moved  them  to 
spare  the  murderer.  That  is  why  the  Dayaks,  apart 
from  the  murders  they  commit  when  actuated  by  their 
conception  of  justice,  are  depicted,  by  all  those  who 
know  them,  as  a  most  sympathetic  people.  Thus 
Carl  Bock,  the  same  author  who  has  given  such  a 
terrible  picture  of  head-hunting,  writes : 

"  As  regards  morality,  I  am  bound  to  assign  to  the  Dayaks 
a  high  place  in  the  scale  of  civilization.  .  .  .  Robberies  and 
theft  are  entirely  unknown  among  them.  They  also  are  very 
truthful.  ...  If  I  did  not  always  get  the  'whole  truth/  I 

1  See  Carl  Bock,  The  Head-Hunters  of  Borneo,  London,  1881. 
I  am  told,  however,  by  Sir  Hugh  Law,  who  was  for  a  long  time 
Governor  of  Borneo,  that  the  "  head-hunting  "  described  in  this  book 
is  grossly  exaggerated.  Altogether,  my  informant  speaks  of  the 
Dayaks  in  exactly  the  same  sympathetic  terms  as  Ida  Pfeiffer.  Let 
me  add  that  Mary  Kingsley  speaks  in  her  book  on  West  Africa  in 
the  same  sympathetic  terms  of  the  Fans,  who  had  been  represented 
formerly  as  the  most  "  terrible  cannibals." 


no  MUTUAL  AID 

always  got,  at  least,  nothing   but   the  truth  from  them.     I 
wish  I  could  say  the  same  of  the  Malays"  (pp.  209  and  210). 

Bock's  testimony  is  fully  corroborated  by  that  of  Ida 
Pfeiffer.  "  I  fully  recognized,"  she  wrote,  "that  I  should 
be  pleased  longer  to  travel  among  them.  I  usually 
found  them  honest,  good,  and  reserved  .  .  .  much 
more  so  than  any  other  nation  I  know."  l  Stoltze  used 
almost  the  same  language  when  speaking  of  them. 
The  Dayaks  usually  have  but  one  wife,  and  treat  her 
well.  They  are  very  sociable,  and  every  morning  the 
whole  clan  goes  out  for  fishing,  hunting,  or  gardening, 
in  large  parties.  Their  villages  consist  of  big  huts, 
each  of  which  is  inhabited  by  a  dozen  families,  and 
sometimes  by  several  hundred  persons,  peacefully 
living  together.  They  show  great  respect  for  their 
wives,  and  are  fond  of  their  children  ;  and  when  one 
of  them  falls  ill,  the  women  nurse  him  in  turn.  As  a 
rule  they  are  very  moderate  in  eating  and  drinking. 
Such  is  the  Dayak  in  his  real  daily  life. 

It  would  be  a  tedious  repetition  if  more  illustrations 
from  savage  life  were  given.  Wherever  we  go  we 
find  the  same  sociable  manners,  the  same  spirit  of 
solidarity.  And  when  we  endeavour  to  penetrate  into 
the  darkness  of  past  ages,  we  find  the  same  tribal  life, 
the  same  associations  of  men,  however  primitive,  for 
mutual  support.  Therefore,  Darwin  was  quite  right 
when  he  saw  in  man's  social  qualities  the  chief  factor 
for  his  further  evolution,  and  Darwin's  vulgarizers 
are  entirely  wrong  when  they  maintain  the  contrary. 

The  small  strength  and  speed  of  man  (he  wrote),  his  want 
of  natural  weapons,  etc.,  are  more  than  counterbalanced,  firstly, 

1  Ida  Pfeiffer,  Meine  ziveite  Weltreise,  Wien,  1856,  vol.  i.  pp.  116 
seq.  See  also  Muller  and  Temminch's  Dutch  Possessions  in  Archi- 
felagic  India,  quoted  by  Elise'e  Reclus,  in  Geographic  Universelle,  xiii. 


MUTUAL  AID  AMONG  SAVAGES     in 

by  his  intellectual  faculties  (which,  he  remarked  on  another 
page,  have  been  chiefly  or  even  exclusively  gained  for  the 
benefit  of  the  community) ;  and  secondly,  by  his  social 
qualities,  which  led  him  to  give  and  receive  aid  from  his  fellow 
men.1 

In  the  last  century  the  "  savage  "  and  his  "  life  in  the 
state  of  nature"  were  idealized.  But  now  men  of 
science  have  gone  to  the  opposite  extreme,  especially 
since  some  of  them,  anxious  to  prove  the  animal  origin 
of  man,  but  not  conversant  with  the  social  aspects  of 
animal  life,  began  to  charge  the  savage  with  all 
imaginable  "  bestial  "  features.  It  is  evident,  however, 
that  this  exaggeration  is  even  more  unscientific  than 
Rousseau's  idealization.  The  savage  is  not  an  ideal  of 
virtue,  nor  is  he  an  ideal  of  "savagery."  But  the 
primitive  man  has  one  quality,  elaborated  and  main- 
tained by  the  very  necessities  of  his  hard  struggle  for 
life — he  identifies  his  own  existence  with  that  of  his 
tribe  ;  and  without  that  quality  mankind  never  would 
have  attained  the  level  it  has  attained  now. 

Primitive  folk,  as  has  been  already  said,  so  much 
identify  their  lives  with  that  of  the  tribe,  that  each  of 
their  acts,  however  insignificant,  is  considered  as  a 
tribal  affair.  Their  whole  behaviour  is  regulated  by 
an  infinite  series  of  unwritten  rules  of  propriety  which 
are  the  fruit  of  their  common  experience  as  to  what  is 
good  or  bad — that  is,  beneficial  or  harmful  for  their 
own  tribe.  Of  course,  the  reasonings  upon  which 
their  rules  of  propriety  are  based  sometimes  are  absurd 
in  the  extreme.  Many  of  them  originate  in  super- 
stition ;  and  altogether,  in  whatever  the  savage  does, 
he  sees  but  the  immediate  consequences  of  his  acts  ; 
he  cannot  foresee  their  indirect  and  ulterior  con- 

1  Descent  of  Man,  second  ed.,  pp.  63,  64. 


ii2  MUTUAL   AID 

sequences — thus  simply  exaggerating  a  defect  with 
which  Bentham  reproached  civilized  legislators.  But, 
absurd  or  not,  the  savage  obeys  the  prescriptions  of 
the  common  law,  however  inconvenient  they  may  be. 
He  obeys  them  even  more  blindly  than  the  civilized 
man  obeys  the  prescriptions  of  the  written  law.  His 
common  law  is  his  religion  ;  it  is  his  very  habit  of 
living.  The  idea  of  the  clan  is  always  present  to  his 
mind,  and  self-restriction  and  self-sacrifice  in  the 
interest  of  the  clan  are  of  daily  occurrence.  If  the 
savage  has  infringed  one  of  the  smaller  tribal  rules,  he 
is  prosecuted  by  the  mockeries  of  the  women.  If  the 
infringement  is  grave,  he  is  tortured  day  and  night  by 
the  fear  of  having  called  a  calamity  upon  his  tribe.  If 
he  has  wounded  by  accident  any  one  of  his  own  clan, 
and  thus  has  committed  the  greatest  of  all  crimes,  he 
grows  quite  miserable  :  he  runs  away  in  the  woods, 
and  is  ready  to  commit  suicide,  unless  the  tribe 
absolves  him  by  inflicting  upon  him  a  physical  pain 
and  sheds  some  of  his  own  blood.1  Within  the  tribe 
everything  is  shared  in  common  ;  every  morsel  of  food 
is  divided  among  all  present ;  and  if  the  savage  is 
alone  in  the  woods,  he  does  not  begin  eating  before  he 
has  loudly  shouted  thrice  an  invitation  to  any  one  who 
may  hear  his  voice  to  share  his  meal.2 

In  short,  within  the  tribe  the  rule  of  "  each  for  all "  is 
supreme,  so  long  as  the  separate  family  has  not  yet 
broken  up  the  tribal  unity.  But  that  rule  is  not  ex- 
tended to  the  neighbouring  clans,  or  tribes,  even  when 
they  are  federated  for  mutual  protection.  Each  tribe, 
or  clan,  is  a  separate  unity.  Just  as  among  mammals 

1  See  Bastian's  Mensch  in  der  Geschichte,  iii.  p.  7.     Also  Grey,  loc. 
tit.  ii.  p.  238. 

2  Miklukho-Maclay,  loc.  tit.     Same  habit  with  the  Hottentots. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   SAVAGES  113 

and  birds,  the  territory  is  roughly  allotted  among 
separate  tribes,  and,  except  in  times  of  war,  the 
boundaries  are  respected.  On  entering  the  territory  of 
his  neighbours  one  must  show  that  he  has  no  bad  in- 
tentions. The  louder  one  heralds  his  coming,  the  more 
confidence  he  wins  ;  and  if  he  enters  a  house,  he  must 
deposit  his  hatchet  at  the  entrance.  But  no  tribe  is 
bound  to  share  its  food  with  the  others  :  it  may  do  so 
or  it  may  not.  Therefore  the  life  of  the  savage  is 
divided  into  two  sets  of  actions,  and  appears  under 
two  different  ethical  aspects  :  the  relations  within  the 
tribe,  and  the  relations  with  the  outsiders  ;  and  (like 
our  international  law)  the  "  inter-tribal "  law  widely 
differs  from  the  common  law.  Therefore,  when  it 
comes  to  a  war  the  most  revolting  cruelties  may  be 
considered  as  so  many  claims  upon  the  admiration  of 
the  tribe.  This  double  conception  of  morality  passes 
through  the  whole  evolution  of  mankind,  and  maintains 
itself  until  now.  We  Europeans  have  realized  some 
progress — not  immense,  at  any  rate — in  eradicating 
that  double  conception  of  ethics ;  but  it  also  must  be 
said  that  while  we  have  in  some  measure  extended  our 
ideas  of  solidarity — in  theory,  at  least — over  the  nation, 
and  partly  over  other  nations  as  well,  we  have  lessened 
the  bonds  of  solidarity  within  our  own  nations,  and 
even  within  our  own  families. 

The  appearance  of  a  separate  family  amidst  the  clan 
necessarily  disturbs  the  established  unity.  A  separate 
family  means  separate  property  and  accumulation  of 
wealth.  We  saw  how  the  Eskimos  obviate  its  incon- 
veniences ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  studies 
to  follow  in  the  course  of  ages  the  different  institutions 
(village  communities,  guilds,  and  so  on)  by  means  of 
which  the  masses  endeavoured  to  maintain  the  tribal 

i 


ii4  MUTUAL  AID 

unity,  notwithstanding  the  agencies  which  were  at 
work  to  break  it  down.  On  the  other  hand,  the  first 
rudiments  of  knowledge  which  appeared  at  an 
extremely  remote  epoch,  when  they  confounded  them- 
selves with  witchcraft,  also  became  a  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  individual  which  could  be  used  against 
the  tribe.  They  were  carefully  kept  in  secrecy,  and 
transmitted  to  the  initiated  only,  in  the  secret  societies 
of  witches,  shamans,  and  priests,  which  we  find  among 
all  savages.  By  the  same  time,  wars  and  invasions 
created  military  authority,  as  also  castes  of  warriors, 
whose  associations  or  clubs  acquired  great  powers. 
However,  at  no  period  of  man's  life  were  wars  the 
normal  state  of  existence.  While  warriors  extermin- 
ated each  other,  and  the  priests  celebrated  their 
massacres,  the  masses  continued  to  live  their  daily  life, 
they  prosecuted  their  daily  toil.  And  it  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  studies  to  follow  that  life  of  the 
masses  ;  to  study  the  means  by  which  they  maintained 
their  own  social  organization,  which  was  based  upon 
their  own  conceptions  of  equity,  mutual  aid,  and 
mutual  support — of  common  law,  in  a  word,  even  when 
they  were  submitted  to  the  most  ferocious  theocracy  or 
autocracy  in  the  State. 


CHAPTER   IV 

MUTUAL   AID    AMONG    THE    BARBARIANS 

The  great  migrations. — New  organization  rendered  necessary. — 
The  village  community. — Communal  work. — Judicial  procedure. — 
Inter-tribal  law. — Illustrations  from  the  life  of  our  contemporaries. — 
Buryates. — Kabyles. — Caucasian  mountaineers. — African  stems. 

IT  is  not  possible  to  study  primitive  mankind  with- 
out being  deeply  impressed  by  the  sociability  it  has 
displayed  since  its  very  first  steps  in  life.  Traces  of 
human  societies  are  found  in  the  relics  of  both  the 
oldest  and  the  later  stone  age  ;  and,  when  we  come  to 
observe  the  savages  whose  manners  of  life  are  still 
those  of  neolithic  man,  we  find  them  closely  bound 
together  by  an  extremely  ancient  clan  organization 
which  enables  them  to  combine  their  individually  weak 
forces,  to  enjoy  life  in  common,  and  to  progress.  Man 
is  no  exception  in  nature.  He  also  is  subject  to  the 
great  principle  of  Mutual  Aid  which  grants  the  best 
chances  of  survival  to  those  who  best  support  each 
other  in  the  struggle  for  life.  These  were  the  conclusions 
arrived  at  in  the  previous  chapters. 

However,  as  soon  as  we  come  to  a  higher  stage  ot! 
civilization,  and  refer  to  history  which  already  has,, 
something  to  say  about  that  stage,  we  are  bewildered 
by  the  struggles  and  conflicts  which  it  reveals.  The 
old  bonds  seem  entirely  to  be  broken.  Stems  are  seen 
to  fight  against  stems,  tribes  against  tribes,  individuals 

"5 


ii6  MUTUAL  AID 

against  individuals ;  and  out  of  this  chaotic  contest 
of  hostile  forces,  mankind  issues  divided  into  castes, 
enslaved  to  despots,  separated  into  States  always  ready 
to  wage  war  against  each  other.  And,  with  this  history 
of  mankind  in  his  hands,  the  pessimist  philosopher 
triumphantly  concludes  that  warfare  and  oppression 
are  the  very  essence  of  human  nature  ;  that  the  war- 
like and  predatory  instincts  of  man  can  only  be 
restrained  within  certain  limits  by  a  strong  authority 
which  enforces  peace  and  thus  gives  an  opportunity  to 
the  few  and  nobler  ones  to  prepare  a  better  life  for 
humanity  in  times  to  come. 

And  yet,  as  soon  as  the  every-day  life  of  man  during 
the  historical  period  is  submitted  to  a  closer  analysis — 
and  so  it  has  been,  of  late,  by  many  patient  students 
of  very  early  institutions — it  appears  at  once  under 
quite  a  different  aspect.  Leaving  aside  the  precon- 
ceived ideas  of  most  historians  and  their  pronounced 
predilection  for  the  dramatic  aspects  of  history,  we  see 
that  the  very  documents  they  habitually  peruse  are 
such  as  to  exaggerate  the  part  of  human  life  given  to 
struggles  and  to  underrate  its  peaceful  moods.  The 
bright  and  sunny  days  are  lost  sight  of  in  the  gales  and 
storms.  Even  in  our  own  time,  the  cumbersome  records 
which  we  prepare  for  the  future  historian,  in  our  Press, 
our  law  courts,  our  Government  offices,  and  even  in 
our  fiction  and  poetry,  suffer  from  the  same  one-sided- 
ness.  They  hand  down  to  posterity  the  most  minute 
descriptions  of  every  war,  every  battle  and  skirmish, 
every  contest  and  act  of  violence,  every  kind  of  indi- 
vidual suffering  ;  but  they  hardly  bear  any  trace  of  the 
countless  acts  of  mutual  support  and  devotion  which 
every  one  of  us  knows  from  his  own  experience  ;  they 
hardly  take  notice  of  what  makes  the  very  essence  of 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     117 

our  daily  life — our  social  instincts  and  manners.  No 
wonder,  then,  if  the  records  of  the  past  were  so  imper- 
fect. The  annalists  of  old  never  failed  to  chronicle 
the  petty  wars  and  calamities  which  harassed  their 
contemporaries  ;  but  they  paid  no  attention  whatever 
to  the  life  of  the  masses,  although  the  masses  chiefly 
used  to  toil  peacefully  while  the  few  indulged  in 
fighting.  The  epic  poems,  the  inscriptions  on  monu-| 
ments,  the  treaties  of  peace — nearly  all  historical! 
documents  bear  the  same  character ;  they  deal  with! 
breaches  of  peace,  not  with  peace  itself.  So  that  the 
best-intentioned  historian  unconsciously  draws  a  dis- 
torted picture  of  the  times  he  endeavours  to  depict ; 
and,  to  restore  the  real  proportion  between  conflict  and 
union,  we  are  now  bound  to  enter  into  a  minute 
analysis  of  thousands  of  small  facts  and  faint  indications 
accidentally  preserved  in  the  relics  of  the  past ;  to 
interpret  them  with  the  aid  of  comparative  ethnology  ; 
and,  after  having  heard  so  much  about  what  used  to 
divide  men,  to  reconstruct  stone  by  stone  the  institutions 
which  used  to  unite  them. 

Ere  long  history  will  have  to  be  re-written  on  new 
lines,  so  as  to  take  into  account  these  two  currents  of 
human  life  and  to  appreciate  the  part  played  by  each 
of  them  in  evolution.  But  in  the  meantime  we  may 
avail  ourselves  of  the  immense  preparatory  work 
recently  done  towards  restoring  the  leading  features  of 
the  second  current,  so  much  neglected.  From  the 
better-known  periods  of  history  we  may  take  some 
illustrations  of  the  life  of  the  masses,  in  order  to  indi- 
cate the  part  played  by  mutual  support  during  those 
periods  ;  and,  in  so  doing,  we  may  dispense  (for  the 
sake  of  brevity)  from  going  as  far  back  as  the  Egyptian, 
or  even  the  Greek  and  Roman  antiquity.  For,  in 


ii8  MUTUAL   AID 

fact,  the  evolution  of  mankind  has  not  had  the  character 
of  one  unbroken  series.  Several  times  civilization 
came  to  an  end  in  one  given  region,  with  one  given 
race,  and  began  anew  elsewhere,  among  other  races. 
But  at  each  fresh  start  it  began  again  with  the  same 
clan  institutions  which  we  have  seen  among  the 
savages.  So  that  if  we  take  the  last  start  of  our  own 
civilization,  when  it  began  afresh  in  the  first  centuries 
of  our  era,  among  those  whom  the  Romans  called 
the  "  barbarians,"  we  shall  have  the  whole  scale  of 
evolution,  beginning  with  the  gentes  and  ending  in 
the  institutions  of  our  own  time.  To  these  illustrations 
the  following  pages  will  be  devoted. 

Men  of  science  have  not  yet  settled  upon  the  causes 
which  some  two  thousand  years  ago  drove  whole 
nations  from  Asia  into  Europe  and  resulted  in  the 
great  migrations  of  barbarians  which  put  an  end  to  the 
West  Roman  Empire.  One  cause,  however,  is  natur- 
ally suggested  to  the  geographer  as  he  contemplates 
the  ruins  of  populous  cities  in  the  deserts  of  Central 
Asia,  or  follows  the  old  beds  of  rivers  now  disappeared 
and  the  wide  outlines  of  lakes  now  reduced  to  the  size 
of  mere  ponds.  It  is  desiccation  :  a  quite  recent 
desiccation,  continued  still  at  a  speed  which  we 
formerly  were  not  prepared  to  admit.1  Against  it 

1  Numberless  traces  of  post-pliocene  lakes,  now  disappeared,  are 
found  over  Central,  West,  and  North  Asia.  Shells  of  the  same  species 
as  those  now  found  in  the  Caspian  Sea  are  scattered  over  the  surface 
of  the  soil  as  far  East  as  half-way  to  Lake  Aral,  and  are  found  in 
recent  deposits  as  far  north  as  Kazan.  Traces  of  Caspian  Gulfs, 
formerly  taken  for  old  beds  of  the  Amu,  intersect  the  Turcoman  terri- 
tory. Deduction  must  surely  be  made  for  temporary,  periodical 
oscillations.  But  with  all  that,  desiccation  is  evident,  and  it  progresses 
at  a  formerly  un  expected  speed.  Even  in  the  relatively  wet  parts 
of  South- West  Siberia,  the  succession  of  reliable  surveys,  recently 


man  was  powerless.  When  the  inhabitants  of  North- 
West  Mongolia  and  East  Turkestan  saw  that  water  was 
abandoning  them,  they  had  no  course  open  to  them 
but  to  move  down  the  broad  valleys  leading  to  the 
lowlands,  and  to  thrust  westwards  the  inhabitants  of 
the  plains.1  Stems  after  stems  were  thus  thrown  into 
Europe,  compelling  other  stems  to  move  and  to  remove 
for  centuries  in  succession,  westwards  and  eastwards, 
in  search  of  new  and  more  or  less  permanent  abodes. 
Races  were  mixing  with  races  during  those  migrations, 
aborigines  with  immigrants,  Aryans  with  Ural-Altayans; 
and  it  would  have  been  no  wonder  if  the  social  institu- 
tions which  had  kept  them  together  in  their  mother- 
countries  had  been  totally  wrecked  during  the  stratifi- 
cation of  races  which  took  place  in  Europe  and  Asia. 
But  they  were  not  wrecked  ;  they  simply  underwent 
the  modification  which  was  required  by  the  new 
conditions  of  life. 

The  Teutons,  the  Celts,  the  Scandinavians,  the 
Slavonians,  and  others,  when  they  first  came  in  contact 
with  the  Romans,  were  in  a  transitional  state  of  social 
organization.  The  clan  unions,  based  upon  a  real  or 
supposed  common  origin,  had  kept  them  together  for 
many  thousands  of  years  in  succession.  But  these 
unions  could  answer  their  purpose  so  long  only  as 
there  were  no  separate  families  within  the  gens  or 

published  by  Yadrintseff,  shows  that  villages  have  grown  up  on  what 
was,  eighty  years  ago,  the  bottom  of  one  of  the  lakes  of  the  Tchany 
group ;  while  the  other  lakes  of  the  same  group,  which  covered 
hundreds  of  square  miles  some  fifty  years  ago,  are  now  mere  ponds. 
In  short,  the  desiccation  of  North-West  Asia  goes  on  at  a  rate  which 
must  be  measured  by  centuries,  instead  of  by  the  geological  units  of 
time  of  which  we  formerly  used  to  speak. 

1  Whole  civilizations  had  thus  disappeared,  as  is  proved  now  by 
the  remarkable  discoveries  in  Mongolia  on  the  Orkhon,  and  in  the 
depressions  of  Lukchun  (by  Dmitri  Clements),  and  of  Lob-nor  (by 
Sven  Hedin). 


120  MUTUAL  AID 

clan  itself.  However,  for  causes  already  mentioned, 
the  separate  patriarchal  family  had  slowly  but  steadily 
developed  within  the  clans,  and  in  the  long  run  it 
evidently  meant  the  individual  accumulation  of  wealth 
and  power,  and  the  hereditary  transmission  of  both. 
The  frequent  migrations  of  the  barbarians  and  the 
ensuing  wars  only  hastened  the  division  of  the  gentes 
into  separate  families,  while  the  dispersing  of  stems 
and  their  mingling  with  strangers  offered  singular 
facilities  for  the  ultimate  disintegration  of  those  unions 
which  were  based  upon  kinship.  The  barbarians  thus 
stood  in  a  position  of  either  seeing  their  clans  dissolved 
into  loose  aggregations  of  families,  of  which  the 
wealthiest,  especially  if  combining  sacerdotal  functions 
or  military  repute  with  wealth,  would  have  succeeded 
in  imposing  their  authority  upon  the  others ;  or  of 
finding  out  some  new  form  of  organization  based  upon 
some  new  principle. 

Many  stems  had  no  force  to  resist  disintegration  : 
they  broke  up  and  were  lost  for  history.  But  the 
more  vigorous  ones  did  not  disintegrate.  They  came 
out  of  the  ordeal  with  a  new  organization — the  village 
community — which  kept  them  together  for  the  next 
fifteen  centuries  or  more.  The  conception  of  a  com- 
mon territory,  appropriated  or  protected  by  common 
efforts,  was  elaborated,  and  it  took  the  place  of  the 
vanishing  conceptions  of  common  descent.  The  com- 
mon gods  gradually  lost  their  character  of  ancestors 
and  were  endowed  with  a  local  territorial  character. 
They  became  the  gods  or  saints  of  a  given  locality  ; 
"  the  land  "  was  identified  with  its  inhabitants.  Terri- 
torial unions  grew  up  instead  of  the  consanguine 
unions  of  old,  and  this  new  organization  evidently 
offered  many  advantages  under  the  given  circum- 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     121 

stances.  It  recognized  the  independence  of  the  family 
and  even  emphasized  it,  the  village  community  dis- 
claiming all  rights  of  interference  in  what  was  going 
on  within  the  family  enclosure  ;  it  gave  much  more 
freedom  to  personal  initiative ;  it  was  not  hostile  in 
principle  to  union  between  men  of  different  descent, 
and  it  maintained  at  the  same  time  the  necessary 
cohesion  of  action  and  thought,  while  it  was  strong 
enough  to  oppose  the  dominative  tendencies  of  the 
minorities  of  wizards,  priests,  and  professional  or  dis- 
tinguished warriors.  Consequently  it  became  the 
primary  cell  of  future  organization,  and  with  many 
nations  the  village  community  has  retained  this 
character  until  now. 

It  is  now  known,  and  scarcely  contested,  that  the 
village  community  was  not  a  specific  feature  of  the 
Slavonians,  nor  even  of  the  ancient  Teutons.  It 
prevailed  in  England  during  both  the  Saxon  and 
Norman  times,  and  partially  survived  till  the  last 
century ; 1  it  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  organiza- 
tion of  old  Scotland,  old  Ireland,  and  old  Wales.  In 
France,  the  communal  possession  and  the  communal 
allotment  of  arable  land  by  the  village  folkmote  per- 
sisted from  the  first  centuries  of  our  era  till  the  times 
of  Turgot,  who  found  the  folkmotes  "too  noisy"  and 
therefore  abolished  them.  It  survived  Roman  rule  in 

1  If  I  follow  the  opinions  of  (to  name  modern  specialists  only) 
Nasse,  Kovalevsky,  and  Vinogradov,  and  not  those  of  F.  Seebohm 
(Mr.  Denman  Ross  can  only  be  named  for  the  sake  of  completeness), 
it  is  not  only  because  of  the  deep  knowledge  and  concordance  of 
views  of  these  three  writers,  but  also  on  account  of  their  perfect 
knowledge  of  the  village  community  altogether — a  knowledge  the 
want  of  which  is  much  felt  in  the  otherwise  remarkable  work  of  Mr. 
Seebohm.  The  same  remark  applies,  in  a  still  higher  degree,  to  the 
most  elegant  writings  of  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  whose  opinions  and 
passionate  interpretations  of  old  texts  are  confined  to  himself. 


122  MUTUAL  AID 

Italy,  and  revived  after  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
It  was  the  rule  with  the  Scandinavians,  the  Slavonians, 
the  Finns  (in  the  pitt'dyd,  as  also,  probably,  the  kihla- 
kunta),  the  Coures,  and  the  Lives.  The  village 
community  in  India — past  and  present,  Aryan  and 
non-Aryan — is  well  known  through  the  epoch-making 
works  of  Sir  Henry  Maine ;  and  Elphinstone  has 
described  it  among  the  Afghans.  We  also  find  it 
in  the  Mongolian  oulous,  the  Kabyle  thaddart,  the 
Javanese  dessa,  the  Malayan  kota  or  to/a,  and  under  a 
variety  of  names  in  Abyssinia,  the  Soudan,  in  the 
interior  of  Africa,  with  natives  of  both  Americas,  with 
all  the  small  and  large  tribes  of  the  Pacific  archipelagoes. 
In  short,  we  do  not  know  one  single  human  race  or 
one  single  nation  which  has  not  had  its  period  of 
village  communities.  This  fact  alone  disposes  of  the 
theory  according  to  which  the  village  community  in 
Europe  would  have  been  a  servile  growth.  It  is 
anterior  to  serfdom,  and  even  servile  submission  was 
powerless  to  break  it.  It  was  a  universal  phase  of 
evolution,  a  natural  outcome  of  the  clan  organization, 
with  all  those  stems,  at  least,  which  have  played,  or 
play  still,  some  part  in  history.1 

1  The  literature  of  the  village  community  is  so  vast  that  but  a  few 
works  can  be  named.  Those  of  Sir  Henry  Maine,  F.  Seebohm,  and 
Walter's  Das  alte  Wallis  (Bonn,  1859),  are  well-known  popular 
sources  of  information  about  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Wales.  For 
France,  P.  Viollet,  Precis  de  Vhistoire  du  droit  fran^ais :  Droit  prive, 
1886,  and  several  of  his  monographs  in  BibL  de  lEcole  des  Chartes ; 
Babeau,  Le  Village  sous  fancien  regime  (the  mir  in  the  eighteenth 
century),  third  edition,  1887  ;  Bonnemere,  Doniol,  etc.  For  Italy 
and  Scandinavia,  the  chief  works  are  named  in  Laveleye's  Primitive 
Property,  German  version  by  K.  Biicher.  For  the  Finns,  Rein's 
JPoreldsningar,  i.  16;  Koskinen,  Finnische  Geschichte,  1874,  and 
various  monographs.  For  the  Lives  and  Coures,  Prof.  Lutchitzky  in 
Severnyi  Vestnik,  1891.  For  the  Teutons,  besides  the  well-known 
works  of  Maurer,  Sohm  (Altdeutsche  Reichs-  und  Gerichts-  Verfassung), 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     123 

It  was  a  natural  growth,  and  an  absolute  uniformity 
in  its  structure  was  therefore  not  possible.  As  a  rule, 
it  was  a  union  between  families  considered  as  of 
common  descent  and  owning  a  certain  territory  in 
common.  But  with  some  stems,  and  under  certain 
circumstances,  the  families  used  to  grow  very  numerous 
before  they  threw  off  new  buds  in  the  shape  of  new 
families  ;  five,  six,  or  seven  generations  continued  to 
live  under  the  same  roof,  or  within  the  same  enclosure, 
owning  their  joint  household  and  cattle  in  common, 
and  taking  their  meals  at  the  common  hearth.  They 
kept  in  such  case  to  what  ethnology  knows  as  the 
"joint  family,"  or  the  "undivided  household,"  which 
we  still  see  all  over  China,  in  India,  in  the  South 
Slavonian  zadruga,  and  occasionally  find  in  Africa, 
in  America,  in  Denmark,  in  North  Russia,  and  West 
France.1  With  other  stems,  or  in  other  circumstances, 

also  Dahn  ( Urzeit,  Volkerwanderung,  Langobardische  Studieri),  Janssen, 
Wilh.  Arnold,  etc.  For  India,  besides  H.  Maine  and  the  works  he 
names,  Sir  John  Phear's  Aryan  Village,  For  Russia  and  South 
Slavonians,  see  Kavelin,  Posnikoff,  Sokolovsky,  Kovalevsky,  Efimen- 
ko,  Ivanisheff,  Klaus,  etc.  (copious  bibliographical  index  up  to  1880 
in  the  Sbornik  svedeniy  ob  obschinye  of  the  Russ.  Geog.  Soc.).  For 
general  conclusions,  besides  Laveleye's  Propriety  Morgan's  Ancient 
Society,  Lippert's  Kulturgeschichte,  Post,  Dargun,  etc.,  also  the 
lectures  of  M.  Kovalevsky  (Tableau  des  origines  et  del  evolution  de  la 
famille  et  de  la  propriete,  Stockholm,  1890).  Many  special  mono- 
graphs ought  to  be  mentioned ;  their  titles  may  be  found  in  the 
excellent  lists  given  by  P.  Viollet  in  Droit  prive  and  Droit public. 
For  other  races,  see  subsequent  notes. 

1  Several  authorities  are  inclined  to  consider  the  joint  household 
as  an  intermediate  stage  between  the  clan  and  the  village  community; 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  very  many  cases  village  communities 
have  grown  up  out  of  undivided  families.  Nevertheless,  I  consider 
the  joint  household  as  a  fact  of  a  different  order.  We  find  it  within 
the  gentes ;  on  the  other  hand,  we  cannot  affirm  that  joint  families 
have  existed  at  any  period  without  belonging  either  to  a  gens  or  to  a 
village  community,  or  to  a  Gau.  I  conceive  the  early  village  com- 
munities as  slowly  originating  directly  from  the  gentes,  and  consisting, 
according  to  racial  and  local  circumstances,  either  of  several  joint 


124  MUTUAL  AID 

not  yet  well  specified,  the  families  did  not  attain  the 
same  proportions  ;  the  grandsons,  and  occasionally  the 
sons,  left  the  household  as  soon  as  they  were  married, 
and  each  of  them  started  a  new  cell  of  his  own.  But, 
joint  or  not,  clustered  together  or  scattered  in  the 
woods,  the  families  remained  united  into  village 
communities  ;  several  villages  were  grouped  into 
tribes ;  and  the  tribes  joined  into  confederations. 
Such  was  the  social  organization  which  developed 
among  the  so-called  "  barbarians,"  when  they  began  to 
settle  more  or  less  permanently  in  Europe. 

A  very  long  evolution  was  required  before  the 
gentes,  or  clans,  recognized  the  separate  existence  of 
a  patriarchal  family  in  a  separate  hut ;  but  even  after 
that  had  been  recognized,  the  clan,  as  a  rule,  knew  no 
personal  inheritance  of  property.  The  few  things 
which  might  have  belonged  personally  to  the  individual 
were  either  destroyed  on  his  grave  or  buried  with  him. 
The  village  community,  on  the  contrary,  fully  recognized 
the  private  accumulation  of  wealth  within  the  family 
and  its  hereditary  transmission.  But  wealth  was  con- 
ceived exclusively  in  the  shape  of  movable  property, 
including  cattle,  implements,  arms,  and  the  dwelling- 
house  which — "  like  all  things  that  can  be  destroyed 
by  fire" — belonged  to  the  same  category.1  As  to 
private  property  in  land,  the  village  community  did 
not,  and  could  not,  recognize  anything  of  the  kind, 

families,  or  of  both  joint  and  simple  families,  or  (especially  in  the 
case  of  new  settlements)  of  simple  families  only.  If  this  view  be 
correct,  we  should  not  have  the  right  of  establishing  the  series  :  gens, 
compound  family,  village  community — the  second  member  of  the 
series  having  not  the  same  ethnological  value  as  the  two  others. 
See  Appendix  IX. 

1  Stobbe,  Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Rechtes,  p.  62. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     125 

and,  as  a  rule,  it  does  not  recognize  it  now.  The  land 
was  the  common  property  of  the  tribe,  or  of  the  whole 
stem,  and  the  village  community  itself  owned  its  part 
of  the  tribal  territory  so  long  only  as  the  tribe  did  not 
claim  a  re-distribution  of  the  village  allotments.  The 
clearing  of  the  woods  and  the  breaking  of  the  prairies 
being  mostly  done  by  the  communities  or,  at  least,  by' 
the  joint  work  of  several  families — always  with  thej 
consent  of  the  community — the  cleared  plots  were! 
held  by  each  family  for  a  term  of  four,  twelve,  or 
twenty  years,  after  which  term  they  were  treated  as 
parts  of  the  arable  land  owned  in  common.  Private 
property,  or  possession  "  for  ever,"  was  as  incompatible 
with  the  very  principles  and  the  religious  conceptions 
of  the  village  community  as  it  was  with  the  principles 
of  the  gens ;  so  that  a  long  influence  of  the  Roman 
law  and  the  Christian  Church,  which  soon  accepted 
the  Roman  principles,  were  required  to  accustom  the 
barbarians  to  the  idea  of  p/ivate  property  in  land 
being  possible.1  And  yet,  even  when  such  property, 
or  possession  for  an  unlimited  time,  was  recognized, 
the  owner  of  a  separate  estate  remained  a  co-proprietor 
in  the  waste  lands,  forests,  and  grazing-grounds. 
Moreover,  we  continually  see,  especially  in  the  history 
of  Russia,  that  when  a  few  families,  acting  separately, 
had  taken  possession  of  some  land  belonging  to  tribes 
which  were  treated  as  strangers,  they  very  soon  united 
together,  and  constituted  a  village  community  which 

1  The  few  traces  of  private  property  in  land  which  are  met  with  in 
the  early  barbarian  period  are  found  with  such  stems  (the  Batavians, 
the  Franks  in  Gaul)  as  have  been  for  a  time  under  the  influence  of 
Imperial  Rome.  See  Inama-Sternegg's  Die  Ausbildung  der  grossen 
Grundherrschaften  in  DeutsMand,  Bd.  i.  1878.  Also,  Besseler, 
Neubruch  nach  dem  dlteren  deutschen  Recht,  pp.  11-12,  quoted  by 
Kovalevsky,  Modern  Custom  and  Ancient  Law,  Moscow,  1886,  i.  134. 


126  MUTUAL  AID 

in  the  third  or  fourth  generation  began  to  profess  a 
community  of  origin. 

A  whole  series  of  institutions,  partly  inherited  from 
the  clan  period,  have  developed  from  that  basis  of 
common  ownership  of  land  during  the  long  succession 
of  centuries  which  was  required  to  bring  the  barbarians 
under  the  dominion  of  States  organized  upon  the 
Roman  or  Byzantine  pattern.  The  village  community 
was  not  only  a  union  for  guaranteeing  to  each  one  his 
fair  share  in  the  common  land,  but  also  a  union  for 
common  culture,  for  mutual  support  in  all  possible 
forms,  for  protection  from  violence,  and  for  a  further 
development  of  knowledge,  national  bonds,  and  moral 
conceptions  ;  and  every  change  in  the  judicial,  military, 
educational,  or  economical  manners  had  to  be  decided 
at  the  folkmotes  of  the  village,  the  tribe,  or  the  con- 
federation. The  community  being  a  continuation  of 
the  gens,  it  inherited  all  its  functions.  It  was  the 
universitas,  the  mir — a  world  in  itself, 
j  Common  hunting,  common  fishing,  and  common 
culture  of  the  orchards  or  the  plantations  of  fruit  trees 
^  was  the  rule  with  the  old  gentes.  Common  agriculture 
'  became  the  rule  in  the  barbarian  village  communities. 
True,  that  direct  testimony  to  this  effect  is  scarce,  and 
in  the  literature  of  antiquity  we  only  have  the  passages 
of  Diodorus  and  Julius  Caesar  relating  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Lipari  Islands,  one  of  the  Celt-Iberian  tribes, 
and  the  Sueves.  But  there  is  no  lack  of  evidence  to 
prove  that  common  agriculture  was  practised  among 
some  Teuton  tribes,  the  Franks,  and  the  old  Scotch, 
Irish,  and  Welsh.1  As  to  the  later  survivals  of  the 

1  Maurer's  Markgenossenschaft ;  Lamprecht's  "  Wirthschaft  und 
Recht  der  Franken  zur  Zeit  der  Volksrechte,"  in  Histor.  Taschenbuch, 
1883;  Seebohm's  The  English  Village  Community,  ch.  vi.,  vii.,  and  ix. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   THE   BARBARIANS     127 

same  practice,  they  simply  are  countless.  Even  in 
perfectly  Romanized  France,  common  culture  was 
habitual  some  five  and  twenty  years  ago  in  the 
Morbihan  (Brittany).1  The  old  Welsh  cyvar,  or  joint 
team,  as  well  as  the  common  culture  of  the  land 
allotted  to  the  use  of  the  village  sanctuary  are  quite 
common  among  the  tribes  of  Caucasus  the  least  touched 
by  civilization,2  and  like  facts  are  of  daily  occurrence 
among  the  Russian  peasants.  Moreover,  it  is  well 
known  that  many  tribes  of  Brazil,  Central  America, 
and  Mexico  used  to  cultivate  their  fields  in  common, 
and  that  the  same  habit  is  widely  spread  among  some 
Malayans,  in  New  Caledonia,  with  several  Negro 
stems,  and  so  on.3  In  short,  communal  culture  is  so 
habitual  with  many  Aryan,  Ural-Altayan,  Mongolian, 
Negro,  Red  Indian,  Malayan,  and  Melanesian  stems 
that  we  must  consider  it  as  a  universal — though  not  as 
the  only  possible — form  of  primitive  agriculture.4 

Communal  cultivation  does  not,  however,  imply  by 
necessity  communal  consumption.  Already  under  the 
clan  organization  we  often  see  that  when  the  boats 
laden  with  fruits  or  fish  return  to  the  village,  the  food 
they  bring  in  is  divided  among  the  huts  and  the  "long 

1  Letourneau,  in  Bulletin  de  la  Soc.  d1  Anthropologie,  1888,  vol.  xi. 
p.  476. 

2  Walter,  Das  alte   Wallis,  p.  323  j    Dm.  Bakradze  and  N.  Khou- 
dadoff  in  Russian  Zapiskivi  the  Caucasian  Geogr.  Society,  xiv.  Part  I. 

3  Bancroft's  Native  Races ;   Waitz,  Anthropologie,  iii.  423  ;   Mon- 
trozier,  in  Bull.  Soc.  d1  Anthropologie,  1870  ;  Post's  Studien,  etc. 

4  A  number  of  works,  by  Ory,  Luro,  Laudes,  and  Sylvestre,  on 
the  village  community  in  Annam,  proving  that  it  has  had  there  the 
same  forms  as  in  Germany  or  Russia,  is  mentioned  in  a  review  of 
these  works  by  Jobbe'-Duval,  in  Nouvelle  Revue  historique  de  droit 
fran$ais  et  etr anger,  October  and  December,  1896.     A  good  study  of 
the  village  community  of  Peru,  before  the  establishment  of  the  power 
of  the  Incas,  has  been  brought  out  by  Heinrich  Cunow  (Die  Soziale 
Verfassung  des  Inka-Reichs,  Stuttgart,  1896.      The  communal  pos- 
session of  land  and  communal  culture  are  described  in  that  work. 


128  MUTUAL  AID 

houses"  inhabited  by  either  several  families  or  the 
youth,  and  is  cooked  separately  at  each  separate 
hearth.  The  habit  of  taking  meals  in  a  narrower 
circle  of  relatives  or  associates  thus  prevails  at  an 
early  period  of  clan  life.  It  became  the  rule  in  the 
village  community.  Even  the  food  grown  in  common 
was  usually  divided  between  the  households  after  part 
of  it  had  been  laid  in  store  for  communal  use.  How- 
ever, the  tradition  of  communal  meals  was  piously  kept 
alive  ;  every  available  opportunity,  such  as  the  com- 
memoration of  the  ancestors,  the  religious  festivals, 
the  beginning  and  the  end  of  field  work,  the  births, 
the  marriages,  and  the  funerals,  being  seized  upon  to 
bring  the  community  to  a  common  meal.  Even  now 
this  habit,  well  known  in  this  country  as  the  "  harvest 
supper,"  is  the  last  to  disappear.  On  the  other  hand, 
even  when  the  fields  had  long  since  ceased  to  be  tilled 
and  sown  in  common,  a  variety  of  agricultural  work 
continued,  and  continues  still,  to  be  performed  by  the 
community.  Some  part  of  the  communal  land  is  still 
cultivated  in  many  cases  in  common,  either  for  the  use 
of  the  destitute,  or  for  refilling  the  communal  stores,  or 
for  using  the  produce  at  the  religious  festivals.  The 
irrigation  canals  are  digged  and  repaired  in  common. 
The  communal  meadows  are  mown  by  the  com- 
munity ;  and  the  sight  of  a  Russian  commune  mowing 
a  meadow — the  men  rivalling  each  other  in  their 
advance  with  the  scythe,  while  the  women  turn  the 
grass  over  and  throw  it  up  into  heaps — is  one  of  the 
most  inspiring  sights ;  it  shows  what  human  work 
might  be  and  ought  to  be.  The  hay,  in  such  case,  is 
divided  among  the  separate  households,  and  it  is 
evident  that  no  one  has  the  right  of  taking  hay  from  a 
neighbour's  stack  without  his  permission ;  but  the 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   THE   BARBARIANS     129 

limitation  of  this  last  rule  among  the  Caucasian  Ossetes  | 
is  most  noteworthy.  When  the  cuckoo  cries  and  an- 
nounces that  spring  is  coming,  and  that  the  meadows 
will  soon  be  clothed  again  with  grass,  every  one  in 
need  has  the  right  of  taking  from  a  neighbour's  stack 
the  hay  he  wants  for  his  cattle.1  The  old  communal 
rights  are  thus  re-asserted,  as  if  to  prove  how  contrary 
unbridled  individualism  is  to  human  nature. 

When  the  European  traveller  lands  in  some  small 
island  of  the  Pacific,  and,  seeing  at  a  distance  a  grove 
of  palm  trees,  walks  in  that  direction,  he  is  astonished 
to  discover  that  the  little  villages  are  connected  by 
roads  paved  with  big  stones,  quite  comfortable  for  the 
unshod  natives,  and  very  similar  to  the  "  old  roads  "  of 
the  Swiss  mountains.  Such  roads  were  traced  by  the 
"  barbarians "  all  over  Europe,  and  one  must  have 
travelled  in  wild,  thinly-peopled  countries,  far  away 
from  the  chief  lines  of  communication,  to  realize  in  full 
the  immense  work  that  must  have  been  performed  by 
the  barbarian  communities  in  order  to  conquer  the 
woody  and  marshy  wilderness  which  Europe  was  some ; 
two  thousand  years  ago.  Isolated  families,  having  no 
tools,  and  weak  as  they  were,  could  not  have  conquered 
it ;  the  wilderness  would  have  overpowered  them. 
Village  communities  alone,  working  in  common,  could 
master  the  wild  forests,  the  sinking  marshes,  and  the 
endless  steppes.  The  rough  roads,  the  ferries,  the 
wooden  bridges  taken  away  in  the  winter  and  rebuilt 
after  the  spring  flood  was  over,  the  fences  and  the 
palisaded  walls  of  the  villages,  the  earthen  forts  and 
the  small  towers  with  which  the  territory  was  dotted — 
all  these  were  the  work  of  the  barbarian  communities. 
And  when  a  community  grew  numerous  it  used  to 

1  Kovalevsky,  Modern  Custom  and  Ancient  Law,  i.  115. 

K 


130  MUTUAL   AID 

throw  off  a  new  bud.  A  new  community  arose  at  a 
distance,  thus  step  by  step  bringing  the  woods  and 
the  steppes  under  the  dominion  of  man.  The  whole 
making  of  European  nations  was  such  a  budding  of 
the  village  communities.  Even  now-a-days  the  Russian 
peasants,  if  they  are  not  quite  broken  down  by  misery, 
migrate  in  communities,  and  they  till  the  soil  and  build 
the  houses  in  common  when  they  settle  on  the  banks 
of  the  Amur,  or  in  Manitoba.  And  even  the  English, 
when  they  first  began  to  colonize  America,  used  to 
return  to  the  old  system  ;  they  grouped  into  village 
communities.1 

The  village  community  was  the  chief  arm  of  the 
barbarians  in  their  hard  struggle  against  a  hostile 
nature.  It  also  was  the  bond  they  opposed  to  oppres- 
sion by  the  cunningest  and  the  strongest  which  so 
easily  might  have  developed  during  those  disturbed 
times.  The  imaginary  barbarian — the  man  who  rights 
and  kills  at  his  mere  caprice — existed  no  more  than  the 
"  bloodthirsty  "  savage.  The  real  barbarian  was  living, 
on  the  contrary,  under  a  wide  series  of  institutions, 
imbued  with  considerations  as  to  what  may  be  useful 
or  noxious  to  his  tribe  or  confederation,  and  these 
institutions  were  piously  handed  down  from  generation 
to  generation  in  verses  and  songs,  in  proverbs  or  triads, 
in  sentences  and  instructions.  The  more  we  study 
them  the  more  we  recognize  the  narrow  bonds  which 
united  men  in  their  villages.  Every  quarrel  arising 
between  two  individuals  was  treated  as  a  communal 
affair — even  the  offensive  words  that  might  have  been 
uttered  during  a  quarrel  being  considered  as  an  offence 

1  Palfrey,  History  of  New  England,  ii.   13;    quoted   in  Maine's 
Village  Communities,  New  York,  1876,  p.  201. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     131 

to  the  community  and  its  ancestors.  They  had  to  be 
repaired  by  amends  made  both  to  the  individual  and 
the  community  ; l  and  if  a  quarrel  ended  in  a  fight  and 
wounds,  the  man  who  stood  by  and  did  not  interpose 
was  treated  as  if  he  himself  had  inflicted  the  wounds.2 
The  judicial  procedure  was  imbued  with  the  same 
spirit.  Every  dispute  was  brought  first  before  media- 
tors or  arbiters,  and  it  mostly  ended  with  them,  the 
arbiters  playing  a  very  important  part  in  barbarian 
society.  But  if  the  case  was  too  grave  to  be  settled  in  ' 
this  way,  it  came  before  the  folkmote,  which  was  bound 
"  to  find  the  sentence,"  and  pronounced  it  in  a  con- 
ditional form  ;  that  is,  "  such  compensation  was  due,  if 
the  wrong  be  proved,"  and  the  wrong  had  to  be  proved 
or  disclaimed  by  six  or  twelve  persons  confirming  or 
denying  the  fact  by  oath  ;  ordeal  being  resorted  to  in 
case  of  contradiction  between  the  two  sets  of  jurors. 
Such  procedure,  which  remained  in  force  for  more 
than  two  thousand  years  in  succession,  speaks  volumes > 
for  itself ;  it  shows  how  close  were  the  bonds  between  ; 
all  members  of  the  community.  Moreover,  there 
was  no  other  authority  to  enforce  the  decisions  of 
the  folkmote  besides  its  own  moral  authority.  The 
only  possible  menace  was  that  the  community  might 
declare  the  rebel  an  outlaw,  but  even  this  menace 
was  reciprocal.  A  man  discontented  with  the  folk- 
mote  could  declare  that  he  would  abandon  the  tribe 
and  go  over  to  another  tribe — a  most  dreadful  menace, 
as  it  was  sure  to  bring  all  kinds  of  misfortunes  upon 
a  tribe  that  might  have  been  unfair  to  one  of  its 

1  Konigswarter,  £tudes  sur  /<?  dfocloppement  des  sociites  humaines, 
Paris,  1850. 

2  This  is,  at  least,  the  law  of  the  Kalmucks,  whose  customary  law 
bears  the  closest  resemblance  to  the  laws  of  the  Teutons,  the  old 
Slavonians,  etc. 


132  MUTUAL  AID 

members.1  A  rebellion  against  a  right  decision  of 
the  customary  law  was  simply  "  inconceivable,"  as 
Henry  Maine  has  so  well  said,  because  "law,  morality, 
and  fact"  could  not  be  separated  from  each  other 
in  those  times.2  The  moral  authority  of  the  com- 
mune was  so  great  that  even  at  a  much  later  epoch, 
when  the  village  communities  fell  into  submission  to 
the  feudal  lord,  they  maintained  their  judicial  powers ; 
they  only  permitted  the  lord,  or  his  deputy,  to  "  find  " 
the  above  conditional  sentence  in  accordance  with  the 
customary  law  he  had  sworn  to  follow,  and  to  levy  for 
himself  the  fine  (the  fred}  due  to  the  commune.  But 
for  a  long  time,  the  lord  himself,  if  he  remained  a  co- 
proprietor  in  the  waste  land  of  the  commune,  submitted 
in  communal  affairs  to  its  decisions.  Noble  or  ecclesi- 
astic, he  had  to  submit  to  the  folkmote — Wer  daselbst 
Wasser  und  Weid  genusst,  muss  gehorsam  sein — "  Who 
enjoys  here  the  right  of  water  and  pasture  must  obey  " 
— was  the  old  saying.  Even  when  the  peasants  be- 
came serfs  under  the  lord,  he  was  bound  to  appear 
before  the  folkmote  when  they  summoned  him.3 

In  their  conceptions  of  justice  the  barbarians  evidently 
did  not  much  differ  from  the  savages.  They  also 
maintained  the  idea  that  a  murder  must  be  followed  by 
putting  the  murderer  to  death  ;  that  wounds  had  to  be 
punished  by  equal  wounds,  and  that  the  wronged 
family  was  bound  to  fulfil  the  sentence  of  the  customary 


1  The  habit  is  in  force  still  with  many  African  and  other  tribes. 

2  Village  Communities^  pp.  65-68  and  199. 

8  Maurer  (Gesch.  der  Markverfassung,  §  29,  97)  is  quite  decisive 
upon  this  subject.  He  maintains  that  "All  members  of  the  com- 
munity ....  the  laic  and  clerical  lords  as  well,  often  also  the  partial 
co-possessors  (Markberechtigte\  and  even  strangers  to  the  Mark,  were 
submitted  to  its  jurisdiction"  (p.  312).  This  conception  remained 
locally  in  force  up  to  the  fifteenth  century. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     133 

law.  This  was  a  holy  duty,  a  duty  towards  the  ances- 
tors, which  had  to  be  accomplished  in  broad  daylight, 
never  in  secrecy,  and  rendered  widely  known.  There- 
fore the  most  inspired  passages  of  the  sagas  and  epic 
poetry  altogether  are  those  which  glorify  what  was 
supposed  to  be  justice.  The  gods  themselves  joined 
in  aiding  it.  However,  the  predominant  feature  of 
barbarian  justice  is,  on  the  one  hand,  to  limit  the  num- 
bers of  persons  who  may  be  involved  in  a  feud,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  extirpate  the  brutal  idea  of  blood  for 
blood  and  wounds  for  wounds,  by  substituting  for  it 
the  system  of  compensation.  The  barbarian  codes — 
which  were  collections  of  common  law  rules  written 
down  for  the  use  of  judges — "  first  permitted,  then  en- 
couraged, and  at  last  enforced,"  compensation  instead 
of  revenge.1  The  compensation  has,  however,  been 
totally  misunderstood  by  those  who  represented  it  as  a 
fine,  and  as  a  sort  of  carte  blanche  given  to  the  rich 
man  to  do  whatever  he  liked.  The  compensation 
money  (wergeld\  which  was  quite  different  from  the 
fine  or  fred?  was  habitually  so  high  for  all  kinds  of 
active  offences  that  it  certainly  was  no  encouragement 
for  such  offences.  In  case  of  a  murder  it  usually 
exceeded  all  the  possible  fortune  of  the  murderer. 
"  Eighteen  times  eighteen  cows"  is  the  compensation 
with  the  Ossetes  who  do  not  know  how  to  reckon 
above  eighteen,  while  with  the  African  tribes  it  attains 
800  cows  or  100  camels  with  their  young,  or  416  sheep 

1  Konigswarter,  loc.  tit.  p.  50  ;  J.  Thrupp,  Historical  Law  Tracts, 
London,  1843,  p.  106. 

2  Konigswarter  has  shown  that  the  fred  originated  from  an  offer- 
ing which  had  to  be  made  to  appease  the  ancestors.     Later  on,  it  was 
paid  to  the  community,  for  the  breach  of  peace ;  and  still  later  to  the 
judge,  or  king,  or  lord,  when  they  had  appropriated  to  themselves  the 
rights  of  the  community. 


134  MUTUAL  AID 

in  the  poorer  tribes.1  In  the  great  majority  of  cases, 
the  compensation  money  could  not  be  paid  at  all,  so  that 
the  murderer  had  no  issue  but  to  induce  the  wronged 
family,  by  repentance,  to  adopt  him.  Even  now, 
in  the  Caucasus,  when  feuds  come  to  an  end,  the 
offender  touches  with  his  lips  the  breast  of  the  oldest 
woman  of  the  tribe,  and  becomes  a  "milk-brother"  to 
all  men  of  the  wronged  family.2  With  several  African 
tribes  he  must  give  his  daughter,  or  sister,  in  marriage 
to  some  one  of  the  family ;  with  other  tribes  he  is 
bound  to  marry  the  woman  whom  he  has  made  a 
widow ;  and  in  all  cases  he  becomes  a  member  of  the 
family,  whose  opinion  is  taken  in  all  important  family 
matters.8 

(Far  from  acting  with  disregard  to  human  life,  the 
barbarians,  moreover,  knew  nothing  of  the  horrid 
punishments  introduced  at  a  later  epoch  by  the  laic 
and  canonic  laws  under  Roman  and  Byzantine  influ- 
ence. For,  if  the  Saxon  code  admitted  the  death 
penalty  rather  freely,  even  in  cases  of  incendiarism  and 
armed  robbery,  the  other  barbarian  codes  pronounced 
it  exclusively  in  cases  of  betrayal  of  one's  kin,  and 
sacrilege  against  the  community's  gods,  as  the  only 
means  to  appease  the  gods. 

All   this,  as   seen,  is   very  far  from  the  supposed 

1  IPost'sjBausteme  and  Afrikanische  Jurisprudenz,  Oldenburg,  1887, 
vol.  i.  pp.  64  seq. ;  Kovalevsky,  loc.  cit.  ii.  164-189. 

2  O.  Miller  and  M.  Kovalevsky,  "  In  the  Mountaineer  Communi- 
ties of  Kabardia,"  in  Vestnik  Evropy,  April,  1884.     With  the  Shakh- 
sevens  of  the  Mugan  Steppe,  blood  feuds  always  end  by  marriage 
between  the  two  hostile  sides  (Markoff,  in  appendix  to  the  Zapiski  of 
the  Caucasian  Geogr.  Soc.,  xiv.  i,  21). 

3  Post,  in  Afrik.  Jurisprudenz^  gives  a  series  of  facts  illustrating 
the  conceptions  of  equity  inrooted  among  the  African  barbarians. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  all  serious  examinations  into  barbarian 
common  law. 


MUTUAL  AID  AMONG   THE   BARBARIANS     135 

"  moral  dissoluteness "  of  the  barbarians.  On  the 
contrary,  we  cannot  but  admire  the  deeply  moral  prin- 
ciples elaborated  within  the  early  village  communities 
which  found  their  expression  in  Welsh  triads,  in  legends 
about  King  Arthur,  in  Brehon  commentaries,1  in  old 
German  legends  and  so  on,  or  find  still  their  expression 
in  the  sayings  of  the  modern  barbarians.  In  his  intro- 
duction to  The  Story  of  Burnt  Njal,  George  Dasent 
very  justly  sums  up  as  follows  the  qualities  of  a  North- 
man, as  they  appear  in  the  sagas  : — 

To  do  what  lay  before  him  openly  and  like  a  man,  without 
fear  of  either  foes,  fiends,  or  fate  ;  ...  to  be  free  and  daring 
in  all  his  deeds ;  to  be  gentle  and  generous  to  his  friends  and 
kinsmen  ;  to  be  stern  and  grim  to  his  foes  [those  who  are 
under  the  lex  talionis\,  but  even  towards  them  to  fulfil  all 
bounden  duties.  .  .  .  To  be  no  truce-breaker,  nor  tale-bearer, 
nor  backbiter.  To  utter  nothing  against  any  man  that  he 
would  not  dare  to  tell  him  to  his  face.  To  turn  no  man 
from  his  door  who  sought  food  or  shelter,  even  though  he 
were  a  foe.2 

The  same  or  still  better  principles  permeate  the  Welsh 
epic  poetry  and  triads.  To  act  "  according  to  the 
nature  of  mildness  and  the  principles  of  equity,"  with- 
out regard  to  the  foes  or  to  the  friends,  and  "  to  repair 
the  wrong,"  are  the  highest  duties  of  man ;  "  evil  is 
death,  good  is  life,"  exclaims  the  poet  legislator.3 
"  The  World  would  be  fool,  if  agreements  made  on 
lips  were  not  honourable  " — the  Brehon  law  says. 
And  the  humble  Shamanist  Mordovian,  after  having 
praised  the  same  qualities,  will  add,  moreover,  in  his 
principles  of  customary  law,  that  "  among  neighbours 

1  See  the  excellent  chapter,  "  Le  droit  de  la  Vieille  Irlande,"  (also 
"  Le  Haut  Nord  ")  in  Etudes  de  droit  international  et  de  droit  folitigue, 
by  Prof.  E.  Nys,  Bruxelles,  1896. 

2  Introduction,  p.  xxxv. 

8  Das  alte  Waltis,  pp.  343-350. 


136  MUTUAL  AID 

the  cow  and  the  milking-jar  are  in  common  ;  "  that 
"  the  cow  must  be  milked  for  yourself  and  him  who 
may  ask  milk  ; "  that  "  the  body  of  a  child  reddens 
from  the  stroke,  but  the  face  of  him  who  strikes  reddens 
from  shame  ; "  l  and  so  on.  Many  pages  might  be 
filled  with  like  principles  expressed  and  followed  by 
the  "barbarians." 

One  feature  more  of  the  old  village  communities 
deserves  a  special  mention.  It  is  the  gradual  extension 
of  the  circle  of  men  embraced  by  the  feelings  of  soli- 
darity. Not  only  the  tribes  federated  into  stems,  but 
the  stems  as  well,  even  though  of  different  origin, 
joined  together  in  confederations.  Some  unions  were 
so  close  that,  for  instance,  the  Vandals,  after  part 
of  their  confederation  had  left  for  the  Rhine,  and 
thence  went  over  to  Spain  and  Africa,  respected  for 
forty  consecutive  years  the  landmarks  and  the  aban- 
doned villages  of  their  confederates,  and  did  not  take 
possession  of  them  until  they  had  ascertained  through 
envoys  that  their  confederates  did  not  intend  to  return. 
With  other  barbarians,  the  soil  was  cultivated  by  one 
part  of  the  stem,  while  the  other  part  fought  on  or 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  common  territory.  As  to 
the  leagues  between  several  stems,  they  were  quite 
habitual.  The  Sicambers  united  with  the  Cherusques 
and  the  Sueves,  the  Quades  with  the  Sarmates ;  the 
Sarmates  with  the  Alans,  the  Carpes,  and  the  Huns. 
Later  on,  we  also  see  the  conception  of  nations  gradu- 
ally developing  in  Europe,  long  before  anything  like  a 
State  had  grown  in  any  part  of  the  continent  occupied 
by  the  barbarians.  These  nations — for  it  is  impossible 

1  Maynoff,  "  Sketches  of  the  Judicial  Practices  of  the  Mordovians," 
in  the  ethnographical  Zapiski  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society, 
1885,  PP-  236,  257. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     137 

to  refuse  the  name  of  a  nation  to  the  Merovingian 
France,  or  to  the  Russia  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
century — were  nevertheless  kept  together  by  nothing 
else  but  a  community  of  language,  and  a  tacit  agree- 
ment of  the  small  republics  to  take  their  dukes  from 
none  but  one  special  family. 

Wars  were  certainly  unavoidable ;  migration  means 
war ;  but  Sir  Henry  Maine  has  already  fully  proved  in 
his  remarkable  study  of  the  tribal  origin  of  Inter- 
national Law,  that  "  Man  has  never  been  so  ferocious 
or  so  stupid  as  to  submit  to  such  an  evil  as  war  without 
some  kind  of  effort  to  prevent  it,"  and  he  has  shown 
how  exceedingly  great  is  "  the  number  of  ancient 
institutions  which  bear  the  marks  of  a  design  to  stand 
in  the  way  of  war,  or  to  provide  an  alternative  to  it." 1 
In  reality,  man  is  so  far  from  the  warlike  being  he  is 
supposed  to  be,  that  when  the  barbarians  had  once 
settled  they  so  rapidly  lost  the  very  habits  of  warfare 
that  very  soon  they  were  compelled  to  keep  special 
dukes  followed  by  special  schola  or  bands  of  warriors, 
in  order  to  protect  them  from  possible  intruders.  They 
preferred  peaceful  toil  to  war,  the  very  peacefulness  of 
man  being  the  cause  of  the  specialization  of  the 
warrior's  trade,  which  specialization  resulted  later  on  in 
serfdom  and  in  all  the  wars  of  the  "  States  period "  of 
human  history. 

History  finds  great  difficulties  in  restoring  to  life  the 
institutions  of  the  barbarians.  At  every  step  the 
historian  meets  with  some  faint  indication  which  he  is 
unable  to  explain  with  the  aid  of  his  own  documents 
only.  But  a  broad  light  is  thrown  on  the  past  as  soon 

1  Henry  Maine,  International  Law,  London,  1888,  pp.  11-13. 
E.  Nys,  Les  origines  du  droit  international,  Bruxelles,  1894. 


138  MUTUAL   AID 

as  we  refer  to  the  institutions  of  the  very  numerous 
tribes  which  are  still  living  under  a  social  organization 
almost  identical  with  that  of  our  barbarian  ancestors. 
Here  we  simply  have  the  difficulty  of  choice,  because  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific,  the  steppes  of  Asia,  and  the 
tablelands  of  Africa  are  real  historical  museums  con- 
taining specimens  of  all  possible  intermediate  stages 
which  mankind  has  lived  through,  when  passing  from 
the  savage  gentes  up  to  the  States'  organization.  Let 
us,  then,  examine  a  few  of  those  specimens. 

If  we  take  the  village  communities  of  the 
Mongol  Buryates,  especially  those  of  the  Kudinsk 
Steppe  on  the  upper  Lena  which  have  better  escaped 
Russian  influence,  we  have  fair  representatives  of 
barbarians  in  a  transitional  state,  between  cattle-breed- 
ing and  agriculture.1  These  Buryates  are  still  living 
in  "joint  families  ; "  that  is,  although  each  son,  when  he 
is  married,  goes  to  live  in  a  separate  hut,  the  huts  of 
at  least  three  generations  remain  within  the  same  en- 
closure, and  the  joint  family  work  in  common  in  their 
fields,  and  own  in  common  their  joint  households  and 
their  cattle,  as  well  as  their  "  calves'  grounds  "  (small 
fenced  patches  of  soil  kept  under  soft  grass  for  the 
rearing  of  calves).  As  a  rule,  the  meals  are  taken 
separately  in  each  hut ;  but  when  meat  is  roasted,  all 
the  twenty  to  sixty  members  of  the  joint  household 
feast  together.  Several  joint  households  which  live  in 
a  cluster,  as  well  as  several  smaller  families  settled  in 
the  same  village — mostly  d&bris  of  joint  households 
accidentally  broken  up — make  the  oulous,  or  the  village 

1  A  Russian  historian,  the  Kazan  Professor  Schapoff,  who  was 
exiled  in  1862  to  Siberia,  has  given  a  good  description  of  their 
institutions  in  the  Izvestia  of  the  East-Siberian  Geographical  Society, 
vol.  v.  1874. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     139 

community  ;  several  oulouses  make  a  tribe  ;  and  the 
forty-six  tribes,  or  clans,  of  the  Kudinsk  Steppe  are 
united  into  one  confederation.  Smaller  and  closer 
confederations  are  entered  into,  as  necessity  arises  for 
special  wants,  by  several  tribes.  They  know  no  private 
property  in  land — the  land  being  held  in  common  by 
the  oulous,  or  rather  by  the  confederation,  and  if  it 
becomes  necessary,  the  territory  is  re-allotted  between 
the  different  oulouses  at  a  folkmote  of  the  tribe,  and; 
between  the  forty-six  tribes  at  a  folkmote  of  the  con- 
federation. It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  same 
organization  prevails  among  all  the  250,000  Buryates 
of  East  Siberia,  although  they  have  been  for  three 
centuries  under  Russian  rule,  and  are  well  acquainted 
with  Russian  institutions. 

With  all  that,  inequalities  of  fortune  rapidly  develop 
among  the    Buryates,    especially   since   the    Russian 
Government  is  giving  an  exaggerated  importance  to 
their    elected    taishas    (princes),    whom    it   considers 
as   responsible   tax-collectors   and    representatives    of 
the  confederations  in   their   administrative  and  even 
commercial  relations  with  the  Russians.     The  channels 
for  the  enrichment  of  the  few  are  thus  many,  while  the 
impoverishment  of   the  great  number   goes   hand   in 
hand,  through  the  appropriation  of  the  Buryate  lands 
by  the  Russians.     But  it  is  a  habit  with  the  Buryates,;, 
especially  those  of  Kudinsk — and  habit  is  more  thani 
law — that  if   a  family  has  lost  its  cattle,  the  richer 
families   give  it  some  cows  and  horses  that  it  may 
recover.     As  to  the  destitute  man  who  has  no  family, 
he  takes  his  meals  in  the  huts  of  his  congeners ;  he  I 
enters  a  hut,  takes — by  right,  not  for  charity — his  seat 
by   the   fire,    and   shares    the   meal  which   always  is 
scrupulously  divided  into  equal  parts ;  he  sleeps  where 


140  MUTUAL  AID 

he  has  taken  his  evening  meal.  Altogether,  the 
Russian  conquerors  of  Siberia  were  so  much  struck 
by  the  communistic  practices  of  the  Buryates,  that 
they  gave  them  the  name  of  Bratskiye — "the  Brotherly 
Ones" — and  reported  to  Moscow:  "With  them  every- 
thing is  in  common ;  whatever  they  have  is  shared  in 
common."  Even  now,  when  the  Lena  Buryates  sell 
their  wheat,  or  send  some  of  their  cattle  to  be  sold  to 
a  Russian  butcher,  the  families  of  the  ou/ous,  or  the 
tribe,  put  their  wheat  and  cattle  together,  and  sell  it  as 
a  whole.  Each  oulous  has,  moreover,  its  grain  store 
for  loans  in  case  of  need,  its  communal  baking  oven 
(the  four  banal  of  the  old  French  communities),  and 
its  blacksmith,  who,  like  the  blacksmith  of  the  Indian 
communities,1  being  a  member  of  the  community,  is 
never  paid  for  his  work  within  the  community.  He 
must  make  it  for  nothing,  and  if  he  utilizes  his  spare 
time  for  fabricating  the  small  plates  of  chiselled  and 
silvered  iron  which  are  used  in  Buryate  land  for  the 
decoration  of  dress,  he  may  occasionally  sell  them  to  a 
woman  from  another  clan,  but  to  the  women  of  his 
own  clan  the  attire  is  presented  as  a  gift.  Selling  and 
buying  cannot  take  place  within  the  community,  and 
the  rule  is  so  severe  that  when  a  richer  family  hires  a 
labourer  the  labourer  must  be  taken  from  another  clan 
or  from  among  the  Russians.  This  habit  is  evidently  not 
specific  to  the  Buryates  ;  it  is  so  widely  spread  among 
the  modern  barbarians,  Aryan  and  Ural-Altayan,  that 
it  must  have  been  universal  among  our  ancestors. 

The  feeling  of  union  within  the  confederation  is  kept 
alive  by  the  common  interests  of  the  tribes,  their  folk- 
motes,  and  the  festivities  which  are  usually  kept  in 

1  Sir  Henry  Maine's  Village  Communities,  New  York,  1876,  pp. 
193-196. 


MUTUAL  AID  AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     141 

connection  with  the  folkmotes.  The  same  feeling  is, 
however,  maintained  by  another  institution,  the  aba, 
or  common  hunt,  which  is  a  reminiscence  of  a  very 
remote  past.  Every  autumn,  the  forty-six  clans  of 
Kudinsk  come  together  for  such  a  hunt,  the  produce  of 
which  is  divided  among  all  the  families.  Moreover, 
national  abas,  to  assert  the  unity  of  the  whole  Buryate 
nation,  are  convoked  from  time  to  time.  In  such 
cases,  all  Buryate  clans  which  are  scattered  for 
hundreds  of  miles  west  and  east  of  Lake  Baikal, 
are  bound  to  send  their  delegate  hunters.  Thou- 
sands of  men  come  together,  each  one  bringing  pro- 
visions for  a  whole  month.  Every  one's  share  must 
be  equal  to  all  the  others,  and  therefore,  before  being 
put  together,  they  are  weighed  by  an  elected  elder 
(always  "  with  the  hand  " :  scales  would  be  a  profan- 
ation of  the  old  custom).  After  that  the  hunters 
divide  into  bands  of  twenty,  and  the  parties  go  hunting 
according  to  a  well-settled  plan.  In  such  abas  the 
entire  Buryate  nation  revives  its  epic  traditions  of  a 
time  when  it  was  united  in  a  powerful  league.  Let  me 
add  that  such  communal  hunts  are  quite  usual  with  the 
Red  Indians  and  the  Chinese  on  the  banks  of  the 
Usuri  (the  kada).1 

With  the  Kabyles,  whose  manners  ot  life  have  been 
so  well  described  by  two  French  explorers,2  we  have 
barbarians  still  more  advanced  in  agriculture.  Their 
fields,  irrigated  and  manured,  are  well  attended  to,  and 
in  the  hilly  tracts  every  available  plot  of  land  is  culti- 
vated by  the  spade.  The  Kabyles  have  known  many 
vicissitudes  in  their  history ;  they  have  followed  for 

1  Nazaroff,  The  North  Usuri  Territory  (Russian),  St  Petersburg, 
1887,  p.  65. 

2  Hanoteau  et  Letourneux,  La  Kabylie,  3  vols.  Paris,  1883. 


142  MUTUAL  AID 

some  time  the  Mussulman  law  of  inheritance,  but, 
being  adverse  to  it,  they  have  returned,  1 50  years  ago, 
to  the  tribal  customary  law  of  old.  Accordingly,  their 
land-tenure  is  of  a  mixed  character,  and  private  property 
in  land  exists  side  by  side  with  communal  posses- 
sion. Still,  the  basis  of  their  present  organization  is 
the  village  community,  the  thaddart,  which  usually 
consists  of  several  joint  families  (kharoubas),  claiming 
a  community  of  origin,  as  well  as  of  smaller  families 
of  strangers.  Several  villages  are  grouped  into  clans 
or  tribes  (arch)  ;  several  tribes  make  the  confederation 
(thakebilf) ;  and  several  confederations  may  occasion- 
ally enter  into  a  league,  chiefly  for  purposes  of  armed 
defence. 

The  Kabyles  know  no  authority  whatever  besides 
that  of  the  djemmda,  or  folkmote  of  the  village 
community.  All  men  of  age  take  part  in  it,  in  the 
open  air,  or  in  a  special  building  provided  with  stone 
seats,  and  the  decisions  of  the  djemmda  are  evidently 
taken  at  unanimity :  that  is,  the  discussions  continue 
until  all  present  agree  to  accept,  or  to  submit  to,  some 
decision.  There  being  no  authority  in  a  village  com- 
munity to  impose  a  decision,  this  system  has  been 
practised  by  mankind  wherever  there  have  been  village 
communities,  and  it  is  practised  still  wherever  they 
continue  to  exist,  i.  e.  by  several  hundred  million  men 
all  over  the  world.  The  djemmda  nominates  its 
executive — the  elder,  the  scribe,  and  the  treasurer ; 
it  assesses  its  own  taxes ;  and  it  manages  the  re- 
partition of  the  common  lands,  as  well  as  all  kinds 
of  works  of  public  utility.  A  great  deal  of  work  is 
1  done  in  common:  the  roads,  the  mosques,  the  fountains, 
jthe  irrigation  canals,  the  towers  erected  for  protection 
tfrom  robbers,  the  fences,  and  so  on,  are  built  by  the 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG   THE   BARBARIANS     143 

village  community;  while  the  high-roads,  the  larger 
mosques,  and  the  great  market-places  are  the  work  of 
the  tribe.  Many  traces  of  common  culture  continue 
to  exist,  and  the  houses  continue  to  be  built  by,  or  with 
the  aid  of,  all  men  and  women  of  the  village.  Al- 
together, the  "  aids  "  are  of  daily  occurrence,  and  are 
continually  called  in  for  the  cultivation  of  the  fields, 
for  harvesting,  and  so  on.  As  to  the  skilled  work, 
each  community  has  its  blacksmith,  who  enjoys  his 
part  of  the  communal  land,  and  works  for  the  com- 
munity ;  when  the  tilling  season  approaches  he  visits 
every  house,  and  repairs  the  tools  and  the  ploughs, 
without  expecting  any  pay,  while  the  making  of  new 
ploughs  is  considered  as  a  pious  work  which  can  by  no 
means  be  recompensed  in  money,  or  by  any  other  form 
of  salary. 

As  the  Kabyles  already  have  private  property,  they 
evidently  have  both  rich  and  poor  among  them.  But 
like  all  people  who  closely  live  together,  and  know 
how  poverty  begins,  they  consider  it  as  an  accident 
which  may  visit  every  one.  "  Don't  say  that  you  will 
never  wear  the  beggar's  bag,  nor  go  to  prison,"  is  a 
proverb  of  the  Russian  peasants  ;  the  Kabyles  practise 
it,  and  no  difference  can  be  detected  in  the  external 
behaviour  between  rich  and  poor ;  when  the  poor 
convokes  an  "aid,"  the  rich  man  works  in  his  field, 
just  as  the  poor  man  does  it  reciprocally  in  his  turn.1 
Moreover,  the  djemmdas  set  aside  certain  gardens  and 
fields,  sometimes  cultivated  in  common,  for  the  use  of 

1  To  convoke  an  "aid,  or  "bee,"  some  kind  of  meal  must  be 
offered  to  the  community.  I  am  told  by  a  Caucasian  friend  that  in 
Georgia,  when  the  poor  man  wants  an  "  aid,"  he  borrows  from  the 
rich  man  a  sheep  or  two  to  prepare  the  meal,  and  the  community 
bring,  in  addition  to  their  work,  so  many  provisions  that  he  may 
repay  the  debt.  A  similar  habit  exists  with  the  Mordovians. 


144  MUTUAL   AID 

the  poorest  members.  Many  like  customs  continue  to 
exist.  As  the  poorer  families  would  not  be  able  to 
buy  meat,  meat  is  regularly  bought  with  the  money  of 
the  fines,  or  the  gifts  to  the  djemmda,  or  the  payments 
for  the  use  of  the  communal  olive-oil  basins,  and  it  is 
distributed  in  equal  parts  among  those  who  cannot 
afford  buying  meat  themselves.  And  when  a  sheep 
or  a  bullock  is  killed  by  a  family  for  its  own  use  on  a 
day  which  is  not  a  market  day,  the  fact  is  announced 
in  the  streets  by  the  village  crier,  in  order  that  sick 
people  and  pregnant  women  may  take  of  it  what  they 
want.  Mutual  support  permeates  the  life  of  the 
Kabyles,  and  if  one  of  them,  during  a  journey  abroad, 
meets  with  another  Kabyle  in  need,  he  is  bound  to 
come  to  his  aid,  even  at  the  risk  of  his  own  fortune 
and  life ;  if  this  has  not  been  done,  the  djemmda  of 
the  man  who  has  suffered  from  such  neglect  may  lodge 
a  complaint,  and  the  djemmda  of  the  selfish  man  will 
at  once  make  good  the  loss.  We  thus  come  across  a 
custom  which  is  familiar  to  the  students  of  the  mediae- 
val merchant  guilds.  Every  stranger  who  enters  a 
Kabyle  village  has  right  to  housing  in  the  winter,  and 
his  horses  can  always  graze  on  the  communal  lands  for 
twenty-four  hours.  But  in  case  of  need  he  can 
reckon  upon  an  almost  unlimited  support.  Thus, 
during  the  famine  of  1867-68,  the  Kabyles  received 
,  and  fed  every  one  who  sought  refuge  in  their  villages, 
j  without  distinction  of  origin.  In  the  district  of  Dellys, 
no  less  than  12,000  people  who  came  from  all  parts  of 
Algeria,  and  even  from  Morocco,  were  fed  in  this 
way.  While  people  died  from  starvation  all  over 
Algeria,  there  was  not  one  single  case  of  death  due  to 
this  cause  on  Kabylian  soil.  The  djemmdas,  depriving 
themselves  of  necessaries,  organized  relief,  without 


MUTUAL  AID  AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     145 

ever  asking  any  aid  from  the  Government,  or  uttering 
the  slightest  complaint ;  they  considered  it  as  a  natural 
duty.  And  while  among  the  European  settlers  all 
kind  of  police  measures  were  taken  to  prevent  thefts 
and  disorder  resulting  from  such  an  influx  of  strangers, 
nothing  of  the  kind  was  required  on  the  Kabyles' 
territory  :  the  djemmdas  needed  neither  aid  nor  pro- 
tection from  without.1 

I  can  only  cursorily  mention  two  other  most  inter- 
esting features  of  Kabyle  life  ;  namely,  the  anaya,  or 
protection  granted  to  wells,  canals,  mosques,  market- 
places, some  roads,  and  so  on,  in  case  of  war,  and  the 
fofs.  In  the  anaya  we  have  a  series  of  institutions 
both  for  diminishing  the  evils  of  war  and  for  pre- 
venting conflicts.  Thus  the  market-place  is  anaya, 
especially  if  it  stands  on  a  frontier  and  brings 
Kabyles  and  strangers  together  ;  no  one  dares  disturb 
peace  in  the  market,  and  if  a  disturbance  arises,  it  is 
quelled  at  once  by  the  strangers  who  have  gathered 
in  the  market  town.  The  road  upon  which  the  women 
go  from  the  village  to  the  fountain  also  is  anaya  in 
case  of  war  ;  and  so  on.  As  to  the  fof,  it  is  a  widely- 
spread  form  of  association,  having  some  characters  of 
the  mediaeval  Bilrgschaften  or  Gegilden,  as  well  as  of 
societies  both  for  mutual  protection  and  for  various 
purposes — intellectual,  political,  and  emotional — which 
cannot  be  satisfied  by  the  territorial  organization  of 
the  village,  the  clan,  and  the  confederation.  The  fof 
knows  no  territorial  limits  ;  it  recruits  its  members  in 
various  villages,  even  among  strangers ;  and  it  pro- 

1  Hanoteau  et  Letourneux,  La  Kabylie,  ii.  58.  The  same  respect 
to  strangers  is  the  rule  with  the  Mongols.  The  Mongol  who  has 
refused  his  roof  to  a  stranger  pays  the  full  blood-compensation  if  the 
stranger  has  suffered  therefrom  (Bastian,  Der  Mensch  in  dcr  Ge- 
schichte,  iii.  231). 

L 


146  MUTUAL  AID 

tects  them  in  all  possible  eventualities  of  life.  Alto- 
gether, it  is  an  attempt  at  supplementing  the  territorial 
grouping  by  an  extra-territorial  grouping  intended  to 
give  an  expression  to  mutual  affinities  of  all  kinds 
across  the  frontiers.  The  free  international  association 
of  individual  tastes  and  ideas,  which  we  consider  as 
one  of  the  best  features  of  our  own  life,  has  thus  its 
origin  in  barbarian  antiquity. 

The  mountaineers  of  Caucasia  offer  another  extremely 
instructive  field  for  illustrations  of  the  same  kind.  In 
studying  the  present  customs  of  the  Ossetes — their 
joint  families  and  communes  and  their  judiciary  con- 
ceptions— Professor  Kovalevsky,  in  a  remarkable  work 
on  Modern  Custom  and  Ancient  Law  was  enabled 
step  by  step  to  trace  the  similar  dispositions  of  the  old 
barbarian  codes  and  even  to  study  the  origins  of 
feudalism.  With  other  Caucasian  stems  we  occasion- 
ally catch  a  glimpse  into  the  origin  of  the  village 
community  in  those  cases  where  it  was  not  tribal  but 
originated  from  a  voluntary  union  between  families  of 
distinct  origin.  Such  was  recently  the  case  with  some 
Khevsoure  villages,  the  inhabitants  of  which  took  the 
oath  of  "  community  and  fraternity." l  In  another 
part  of  Caucasus,  Daghestan,  we  see  the  growth  of 
feudal  relations  between  two  tribes,  both  maintaining 
at  the  same  time  their  village  communities  (and  even 
traces  of  the  gentile  "classes"),  and  thus  giving  a 
living  illustration  of  the  forms  taken  by  the  conquest 
of  Italy  and  Gaul  by  the  barbarians.  The  victori- 
(  ous  race,  the  Lezghines,  who  have  conquered  several 

1  N.  Khoudadoff,  "  Notes  on  the  Khevsoures,"  in  Zapiski  of  the 
Caucasian  Geogr.  Society,  xiv.  i,  Tin1  is,  1890,  p.  68.  They  also  took 
the  oath  of  not  marrying  girls  from  their  own  union,  thus  displaying 
a  remarkable  return  to  the  old  gentile  rules. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     147 

Georgian  and  Tartar  villages  in  the  Zakataly  district, 
did  not  bring  them  under  the  dominion  of  separate 
families  ;  they  constituted  a  feudal  clan  which  now  in- 
cludes 12,000  households  in  three  villages,  and  owns 
in  common  no  less  than  twenty  Georgian  and  Tartar 
villages.  The  conquerors  divided  their  own  land 
among  their  clans,  and  the  clans  divided  it  in  equal 
parts  among  the  families  ;  but  they  did  not  interfere 
with  the  djemmdas  of  their  tributaries  which  still 
practise  the  habit  mentioned  by  Julius  Caesar ; 
namely,  the  djemmda  decides  each  year  which  part  of 
the  communal  territory  must  be  cultivated,  and  this 
land  is  divided  into  as  many  parts  as  there  are 
families,  and  the  parts  are  distributed  by  lot.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  although  proletarians  are  of 
common  occurrence  among  the  Lezghines  (who  live 
under  a  system  of  private  property  in  land,  and 
common  ownership  of  serfs  J)  they  are  rare  among 
their  Georgian  serfs,  who  continue  to  hold  their  land 
in  common.  As  to  the  customary  law  of  the  Caucasian 
mountaineers,  it  is  much  the  same  as  that  of  the 
Longobards  or  Salic  Franks,  and  several  of  its  dis- 
positions explain  a  good  deal  the  judicial  procedure  of 
the  barbarians  of  old.  Being  of  a  very  impression- 
able character,  they  do  their  best  to  prevent  quarrels 
from  taking  a  fatal  issue  ;  so,  with  the  Khevsoures, 
the  swords  are  very  soon  drawn  when  a  quarrel 
breaks  out ;  but  if  a  woman  rushes  out  and  throws 
among  them  the  piece  of  linen  which  she  wears  on 
her  head,  the  swords  are  at  once  returned  to  their 
sheaths,  and  the  quarrel  is  appeased.  The  head-dress 

1  Dm.  Bakradze,  "Notes  on  the  Zakataly  District,"  in  same 
Zapiski,  xiv.  i,  p.  264.  The  "joint  team"  is  as  common  among  the 
Lezghines  as  it  is  among  the  Ossetes. 


148  MUTUAL  AID 

of  the  women  is  anaya.  If  a  quarrel  has  not  been 
stopped  in  time  and  has  ended  in  murder,  the  compen- 
sation money  is  so  considerable  that  the  aggressor  is 
entirely  ruined  for  his  life,  unless  he  is  adopted  by  the 
wronged  family  ;  and  if  he  has  resorted  to  his  sword  in  a 
trifling  quarrel  and  has  inflicted  wounds,  he  loses  for 
ever  the  consideration  of  his  kin.  In  all  disputes, 
mediators  take  the  matter  in  hand  ;  they  select  from 
among  the  members  of  the  clan  the  judges — six  in 
smaller  affairs,  and  from  ten  to  fifteen  in  more  serious 
matters — and  Russian  observers  testify  to  the  absolute 
incorruptibility  of  the  judges.  An  oath  has  such  a 
significance  that  men  enjoying  general  esteem  are 
dispensed  from  taking  it :  a  simple  affirmation  is  quite 
sufficient,  the  more  so  as  in  grave  affairs  the  Khev- 
soure  never  hesitates  to  recognize  his  guilt  (I  mean,  of 
course,  the  Khevsoure  untouched  yet  by  civilization). 
The  oath  is  chiefly  reserved  for  such  cases,  like 
disputes  about  property,  which  require  some  sort  of 
appreciation  in  addition  to  a  simple  statement  of 
facts  ;  and  in  such  cases  the  men  whose  affirmation 
will  decide  in  the  dispute,  act  with  the  greatest 
circumspection.  Altogether  it  is  certainly  not  a  want 
of  honesty  or  of  respect  to  the  rights  of  the  congeners 
which  characterizes  the  barbarian  societies  of  Caucasus. 
The  stems  of  Africa  offer  such  an  immense  variety 
of  extremely  interesting  societies  standing  at  all  inter- 
mediate stages  from  the  early  village  community  to 
the  despotic  barbarian  monarchies  that  I  must  abandon 
the  idea  of  giving  here  even  the  chief  results  of  a 
comparative  study  of  their  institutions.1  Suffice  it  to 

1  See  Post,  Afrikanische  Jurisprudent,  Oldenburg,  1887 ;  Miin- 
zinger,  Ueber  das  Recht  und  Sitten  der  Bogos,  Winterthur,  1859; 
Casalis,  Les  Bassoutos,  Paris,  1859;  Maclean,  Kafir  Laws  and 
Customs,  Mount  Coke,  1858,  etc. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     149 

say,  that,  even  under  the  most  horrid  despotism  of 
kings,  the  folkmotes  of  the  village  communities  and 
their  customary  law  remain  sovereign  in  a  wide  circle 
of  affairs.  The  law  of  the  State  allows  the  king  to 
take  any  one's  life  for  a  simple  caprice,  or  even  for 
simply  satisfying  his  gluttony ;  but  the  customary  law 
of  the  people  continues  to  maintain  the  same  network 
of  institutions  for  mutual  support  which  exist  among 
other  barbarians  or  have  existed  among  our  ancestors. 
And  with  some  better-favoured  stems  (in  Bornu, 
Uganda,  Abyssinia),  and  especially  the  Bogos,  some 
of  the  dispositions  of  the  customary  law  are  inspired 
with  really  graceful  and  delicate  feelings. 

The  village  communities  of  the  natives  of  both 
Americas  have  the  same  character.  The  Tupi  of 
Brazil  were  found  living  in  "  long  houses  "  occupied 
by  whole  clans  which  used  to  cultivate  their  corn  and 
manioc  fields  in  common.  The  Arani,  much  more 
advanced  in  civilization,  used  to  cultivate  their  fields 
in  common  ;  so  also  the  Oucagas,  who  had  learned 
under  their  system  of  primitive  communism  and  "  long 
houses  "  to  build  good  roads  and  to  carry  on  a  variety 
of  domestic  industries,1  not  inferior  to  those  of  the 
early  mediaeval  times  in  Europe.  All  of  them  were 
also  living  under  the  same  customary  law  of  which  we 
have  given  specimens  on  the  preceding  pages.  At 
another  extremity  of  the  world  we  find  the  Malayan 
feudalism,  but  this  feudalism  has  been  powerless 
to  unroot  the  negaria,  or  village  community,  with  its 
common  ownership  of  at  least  part  of  the  land,  and  the 
redistribution  of  land  among  the  several  negarias  of 
the  tribe.2  With  the  Alfurus  of  Minahasa  we  find  the 

1  Waitz,  iii.  423  seq. 

2  Post's  Studien  zur  Entwicklungsgeschichte  des    Familien-Rcchts. 
Oldenburg,  1889,  pp.  270  seq. 


150  MUTUAL  AID 

communal  rotation  of  the  crops ;  with  the  Indian 
stem  of  the  Wyandots  we  have  the  periodical  redis- 
tribution of  land  within  the  tribe,  and  the  clan-culture 
of  the  soil  ;  and  in  all  those  parts  of  Sumatra  where 
Moslem  institutions  have  not  yet  totally  destroyed 
the  old  organization  we  find  the  joint  family  (suka) 
and  the  village  community  (koto)  which  maintains  its 
right  upon  the  land,  even  if  part  of  it  has  been  cleared 
without  its  authorization.1  But  to  say  this,  is  to  say 
that  all  customs  for  mutual  protection  and  prevention 
of  feuds  and  wars,  which  have  been  briefly  indicated 
in  the  preceding  pages  as  characteristic  of  the  village 
community,  exist  as  well.  More  than  that  :  the  more 
fully  the  communal  possession  of  land  has  been  main- 
tained, the  better  and  the  gentler  are  the  habits.  De 
Stuers  positively  affirms  that  wherever  the  institution 
of  the  village  community  has  been  less  encroached 
upon  by  the  conquerors,  the  inequalities  of  fortunes 
are  smaller,  and  the  very  prescriptions  of  the  lex 
talionis  are  less  cruel  ;  while,  on  the  contrary,  wher- 
ever the  village  community  has  been  totally  broken 
up,  "  the  inhabitants  suffer  the  most  unbearable 
oppression  from  their  despotic  rulers." 2  This  is 
quite  natural.  And  when  Waitz  made  the  remark 
that  those  stems  which  have  maintained  their  tribal 
confederations  stand  on  a  higher  level  of  development 
and  have  a  richer  literature  than  those  stems  which 
have  forfeited  the  old  bonds  of  union,  he  only  pointed 
out  what  might  have  been  foretold  in  advance. 

More  illustrations  would  simply  involve  me  in  tedious 
repetitions — so   strikingly   similar   are    the   barbarian 

1  Powell,  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnography,  Washing- 
ton, 1 88 1,  quoted  in  Post's  Studien,  p.  290  ;  Bastian's  Inselgruppen 
in  Oceanien,  1883,  p.  88. 

2  De  Stuers ,  quoted  by  Waitz,  v.  141.* 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONG  THE   BARBARIANS     151 

societies  under  all  climates  and  amidst  all  races.  The 
same  process  of  evolution  has  been  going  on  in  man- 
kind with  a  wonderful  similarity.  When  the  clan 
organization,  assailed  as  it  was  from  within  by  the 
separate  family,  and  from  without  by  the  dismember- 
ment of  the  migrating  clans  and  the  necessity  of 
taking  in  strangers  of  different  descent — the  village 
community,  based  upon  a  territorial  conception,  came 
into  existence.  This  new  institution,  which  had 
naturally  grown  out  of  the  preceding  one — the  clan — 
permitted  the  barbarians  to  pass  through  a  most 
disturbed  period  of  history  without  being  broken  into 
isolated  families  which  would  have  succumbed  in  the 
struggle  for  life.  New  forms  of  culture  developed 
under  the  new  organization ;  agriculture  attained  the 
stage  which'-it  hardly  has  surpassed  until  now  with  the 
great  number ;  the  domestic  industries  reached  a  high 
degree  of  perfection.  The  wilderness  was  conquered, 
it  was  intersected  by  roads,  dotted  with  swarms  thrown 
off  by  the  mother-communities.  Markets  and  fortified 
centres,  as  well  as  places  of  public  worship,  were 
erected.  The  conceptions  of  a  wider  union,  extended 
to  whole  stems  and  to  several  stems  of  various  origin, 
were  slowly  elaborated.  The  old  conceptions  of  justice 
which  were  conceptions  of  mere  revenge,  slowly  under- 
went a  deep  modification — the  idea  of  amends  for  the 
wrong  done  taking  the  place  of  revenge.  The  cus- 
tomary law  which  still  makes  the  law  of  the  daily  life 
for  two-thirds  or  more  of  mankind,  was  elaborated 
under  that  organization,  as  well  as  a  system  of  habits 
intended  to  prevent  the  oppression  of  the  masses  by 
the  minorities  whose  powers  grew  in  proportion  to  the 
growing  facilities  for  private  accumulation  of  wealth. 
This  was  the  new  form  taken  by  the  tendencies  of 


152  MUTUAL  AID 

the  masses  for  mutual  support.  And  the  progress — 
economical,  intellectual,  and  moral — which  mankind 
accomplished  under  this  new  popular  form  of  organiz- 
ation, was  so  great  that  the  States,  when  they  were 
called  later  on  into  existence,  simply  took  possession, 
in  the  interest  of  the  minorities,  of  all  the  judicial, 
economical,  and  administrative  functions  which  the 
village  community  already  had  exercised  in  the  interest 
of  all. 


CHAPTER   V 

MUTUAL    AID    IN    THE    MEDIEVAL    CITY 

Growth  of  authority  in  Barbarian  Society. — Serfdom  in  the 
villages. — Revolt  of  fortified  towns :  their  liberation  ;  their  charts. — 
The  guild. — Double  origin  of  the  free  mediaeval  city. — Self-jurisdic- 
tion, self-administration. — Honourable  position  of  labour. — Trade 
by  the  guild  and  by  the  city. 

SOCIABILITY  and  need  of  mutual  aid  and  support  are 
such  inherent  parts  of  human  nature  that  at  no  time 
of  history  can  we  discover  men  living  in  small  isolated 
families,  fighting  each  other  for  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence. On  the  contrary,  modern  research,  as  we 
saw  it  in  the  two  preceding  chapters,  proves  that  since 
the  very  beginning  of  their  prehistoric  life  men  used 
to  agglomerate  into  gentes,  clans,  or  tribes,  maintained 
by  an  idea  of  common  descent  and  by  worship  of 
common  ancestors.  For  thousands  and  thousands  of 
years  this  organization  has  kept  men  together,  even 
though  there  was  no  authority  whatever  to  impose  it. 
It  has  deeply  impressed  all  subsequent  development  of 
mankind  ;  and  when  the  bonds  of  common  descent  had 
been  loosened  by  migrations  on  a  grand  scale,  while 
the  development  of  the  separated  family  within  the 
clan  itself  had  destroyed  the  old  unity  of  the  clan,  a 
new  form  of  union,  territorial  in  its  principle — the 
village  community — was  called  into  existence  by  the 


154  MUTUAL  AID 

social  genius  of  man.  This  institution,  again,  kept 
men  together  for  a  number  of  centuries,  permitting 
them  to  further  develop  their  social  institutions  and 
to  pass  through  some  of  the  darkest  periods  of  history, 
without  being  dissolved  into  loose  aggregations  of 
families  and  individuals,  to  make  a  further  step  in  their 
evolution,  and  to  work  out  a  number  of  secondary 
social  institutions,  several  of  which  have  survived  down 
to  the  present  time.  We  have  now  to  follow  the 
further  developments  of  the  same  ever-living  tendency 
for  mutual  aid.  Taking  the  village  communities  of 
the  so-called  barbarians  at  a  time  when  they  were 
making  a  new  start  of  civilization  after  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  we  have  to  study  the  new  aspects 
taken  by  the  sociable  wants  of  the  masses  in  the 
middle  ages,  and  especially  in  the  mediaeval  guilds  and 
the  mediaeval  city. 

Far  from  being  the  fighting  animals  they  have 
often  been  compared  to,  the  barbarians  of  the  first 
centuries  of  our  era  (like  so  many  Mongolians,  Africans, 
Arabs,  and  so  on,  who  still  continue  in  the  same 
barbarian  stage)  invariably  preferred  peace  to  war. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  tribes  which  had  been 
driven  during  the  great  migrations  into  unproductive 
deserts  or  highlands,  and  were  thus  compelled  period- 
ically to  prey  upon  their  better-favoured  neighbours — 
apart  from  these,  the  great  bulk  of  the  Teutons,  the 
Saxons,  the  Celts,  the  Slavonians,  and  so  on,  very 
soon  after  they  had  settled  in  their  newly-conquered 
abodes,  reverted  to  the  spade  or  to  their  herds.  The 
earliest  barbarian  codes  already  represent  to  us 
societies  composed  of  peaceful  agricultural  communi- 
ties, not  hordes  of  men  at  war  with  each  other. 
These  barbarians  covered  the  country  with  villages 


155 

and  farmhouses ; l  they  cleared  the  forests,  bridged 
the  torrents,  and  colonized  the  formerly  quite  un- 
inhabited wilderness ;  and  they  left  the  uncertain 
warlike  pursuits  to  brotherhoods,  scholce,  or  "  trusts " 
of  unruly  men,  gathered  round  temporary  chieftains, 
who  wandered  about,  offering  their  adventurous  spirit, 
their  arms,  and  their  knowledge  of  warfare  for  the 
protection  of  populations,  only  too  anxious  to  be  left 
in  peace.  The  warrior  bands  came  and  went, 
prosecuting  their  family  feuds ;  but  the  great  mass 
continued  to  till  the  soil,  taking  but  little  notice  of 
their  would-be  rulers,  so  long  as  they  did  not  interfere 
with  the.  independence  of  their  village  communities.2 
The  new  occupiers  of  Europe  evolved  the  systems  of 
land  tenure  and  soil  culture  which  are  still  in  force 
with  hundreds  of  millions  of  men ;  they  worked  out 
their  systems  of  compensation  for  wrongs,  instead  of 
the  old  tribal  blood-revenge ;  they  learned  the  first 
rudiments  of  industry ;  and  while  they  fortified  their 
villages  with  palisaded  walls,  or  erected  towers  and 
earthen  forts  whereto  to  repair  in  case  of  a  new 
invasion,  they  soon  abandoned  the  task  of  defending 
these  towers  and  forts  to  those  who  made  of  war  a 
speciality. 

The  very  peacefulness  of  the  barbarians,  certainly*] 
not  their  supposed  warlike  instincts,  thus  became  thej 
source  of  their  subsequent  subjection  to  the  military* 
chieftains.  It  is  evident  that  the  very  mode  of  life  of 

1  W.  Arnold,  in  his  Wanderungen  und  Ansiedelungen  der  deutschen 
Stdtnme,  p.  431,  even  maintains  that  one-half  of  the  now  arable  area 
in  middle  Germany  must  have  been  reclaimed  from  the  sixth  to  the 
ninth   century.     Nitzsch   (Gcschichte  des  deutschen    Volkes,  Leipzig, 
1883,  vol.  i.)  shares  the  same  opinion. 

2  Leo  and  Botta,  Histoire  d'ltatie,  French  edition,   1844,  t.  i., 
P-  37- 


156  MUTUAL  AID 

the  armed  brotherhoods  offered  them  more  facilities 
for  enrichment  than  the  tillers  of  the  soil  could  find  in 
their  agricultural  communities.  Even  now  we  see 
that  armed  men  occasionally  come  together  to  shoot 
down  Matabeles  and  to  rob  them  of  their  droves  of 
cattle,  though  the  Matabeles  only  want  peace  and  are 
ready  to  buy  it  at  a  high  price.  The  scholce  of  old 
certainly  were  not  more  scrupulous  than  the  scholce  of 
our  own  time.  Droves  of  cattle,  iron  (which  was 
extremely  costly  at  that  time 1),  and  slaves  were 
appropriated  in  this  way ;  and  although  most  acquisi- 
tions were  wasted  on  the  spot  in  those  glorious  feasts 
of  which  epic  poetry  has  so  much  to  say — still  some 
part  of  the  robbed  riches  was  used  for  further  enrich- 
ment. There  was  plenty  of  waste  land,  and  no  lack 
of  men  ready  to  till  it,  if  only  they  could  obtain  the 
necessary  cattle  and  implements.  Whole  villages, 
ruined  by  murrains,  pests,  fires,  or  raids  of  new 
immigrants,  were  often  abandoned  by  their  inhabitants, 
who  went  anywhere  in  search  of  new  abodes.  They 
still  do  so  in  Russia  in  similar  circumstances.  And  if 
one  of  the  hirdmen  of  the  armed  brotherhoods  offered 
the  peasants  some  cattle  for  a  fresh  start,  some  iron  to 
make  a  plough,  if  not  the  plough  itself,  his  protection 
from  further  raids,  and  a  number  of  years  free  from 
all  obligations,  before  they  should  begin  to  repay  the 
contracted  debt,  they  settled  upon  the  land.  And 
when,  after  a  hard  fight  with  bad  crops,  inundations 

1  The  composition  for  the  stealing  of  a  simple  knife  was  15  solidi, 
and  of  the  iron  parts  of  a  mill,  45  solidi.  (See  on  this  subject 
Lamprecht's  Wirthschaft  und  Recht  der  Franken  in  Raumer's 
Historisches  Taschenbuch,  1883,  p.  52.)  According  to  the  Riparian 
law,  the  sword,  the  spear,  and  the  iron  armour  of  a  warrior  attained 
the  value  of  at  least  twenty-rive  cows,  or  two  years  of  a  freeman's 
labour.  A  cuirass  alone  was  valued  in  the  Salic  law  (Desmichels, 
quoted  by  Michelet)  at  as  much  as  thirty-six  bushels  of  wheat. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL   CITY     157 

and  pestilences,  those  pioneers  began  to  repay  their 
debts,  they  fell  into  servile  obligations  towards  the 
protector  of  the  territory.  Wealth  undoubtedly  did 
accumulate  in  this  way,  and  power  always  follows 
wealth.1  And  yet,  the  more  we  penetrate  into  the 
life  of  those  times,  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries 
of  our  era,  the  more  we  see  that  another  element, 
besides  wealth  and  military  force,  was  required  to 
constitute  the  authority  of  the  few.  It  was  an  element 
of  law  and  right,  a  desire  of  the  masses  to  maintain 
peace,  and  to  establish  what  they  considered  to  be 
justice,  which  gave  to  the  chieftains  of  the  schoks — 
kings,  dukes,  knyazes>  and  the  like — the  force  they 
acquired  two  or  three  hundred  years  later.  That  same 
idea  of  justice,  conceived  as  an  adequate  revenge  for 
the  wrong  done,  which  had  grown  in  the  tribal  stage, 
now  passed  as  a  red  thread  through  the  history  of 
subsequent  institutions,  and,  much  more  even  than 
military  or  economic  causes,  it  became  the  basis  upon 
which  the  authority  of  the  kings  and  the  feudal  lords 
was  founded. 

In  fact,  one  of  the  chief  preoccupations  of  the 
barbarian  village  community  always  was,  as  it  still  is 
with  our  barbarian  contemporaries,  to  put  a  speedy 
end  to  the  feuds  which  arose  from  the  then  current 
conception  of  justice.  When  a  quarrel  took  place,  the 
community  at  once  interfered,  and  after  the  folkmote 

1  The  chief  wealth  of  the  chieftains,  for  a  long  time,  was  in  their 
personal  domains  peopled  partly  with  prisoner  slaves,  but  mostly  in 
the  above  way.  On  the  origin  of  property  see  Inama  Sternegg's 
Die  Ausbildung  der  grossen  Grundherrschaften  in  Deutschland,  in 
Schmoller's  Forschungen,  Bd.  I.,  1878;  F.  Dahn's  Urgeschichte  der 
germanischen  und  romanischen  Volker,  Berlin,  1881  ;  Maurer's 
Dorfuerfassung ;  Guizot's  JSssais  sur  Fhistoire  de  France;  Maine's 
^Village  Community;  Botta's  Histoire  d' Italic ;  F.  Seebohm,  Vino- 
gradov,  J.  R.  Green,  etc. 


158  MUTUAL  AID 

had  heard  the  case,  it  settled  the  amount  of  composi- 
tion (wergeld)  to  be  paid  to  the  wronged  person,  or  to 
his  family,  as  well  as  the  /red,  or  fine  for  breach  of 
peace,  which  had  to  be  paid  to  the  community. 
Interior  quarrels  were  easily  appeased  in  this  way. 
But  when  feuds  broke  out  between  two  different 
tribes,  or  two  confederations  of  tribes,  notwithstanding 
all  measures  taken  to  prevent  them,1  the  difficulty  was 
to  find  an  arbiter  or  sentence-finder  whose  decision 
should  be  accepted  by  both  parties  alike,  both  for  his 
impartiality  and  for  his  knowledge  of  the  oldest  law. 
The  difficulty  was  the  greater  as  the  customary  laws 
of  different  tribes  and  confederations  were  at  variance 
as  to  the  compensation  due  in  different  cases.  It  there- 
fore became  habitual  to  take  the  sentence-finder  from 
among  such  families,  or  such  tribes,  as  were  reputed 
for  keeping  the  law  of  old  in  its  purity  ;  of  being 
versed  in  the  songs,  triads,  sagas,  etc.,  by  means  of 
which  law  was  perpetuated  in  memory ;  and  to  retain 
law  in  this  way  became  a  sort  of  art,  a  "  mystery," 
carefully  transmitted  in  certain  families  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  Thus  in  Iceland,  and  in  other 
Scandinavian  lands,  at  every  Allthing,  or  national 
folkmote,  a  lovsogmathr  used  to  recite  the  whole  law 
from  memory  for  the  enlightening  of  the  assembly; 
and  in  Ireland  there  was,  as  is  known,  a  special  class 
of  men  reputed  for  the  knowledge  of  the  old  traditions, 
and  therefore  enjoying  a  great  authority  as  judges.2 
Again,  when  we  are  told  by  the  Russian  annals  that 
some  stems  of  North- West  Russia,  moved  by  the 

1  See  Sir  Henry  Maine's  International  Law,  London.  1888. 

2  Ancient  Laws  of  Ireland,  Introduction  ;  E.  Nys,  Etudes  de  droit 
international,  t.  i.,  1896,  pp.  86  seq.     Among  the  Ossetes  the  arbiters 
from  three  oldest  villages  enjoy  a  special  reputation  (M.  Kovalevsky's 
Modern  Custom  and  Old  Law,  Moscow,  1886,  ii.  217,  Russian). 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDLEVAL  CITY     159 

growing  disorder  which  resulted  from  "clans  rising 
against  clans,"  appealed  to  Norman  varingiar  to  be 
their  judges  and  commanders  of  warrior  scholcs ;  and 
when  we  see  the  knyazes,  or  dukes,  elected  for  the 
next  two  hundred  years  always  from  the  same  Norman 
family,  we  cannot  but  recognize  that  the  Slavonians 
trusted  to  the  Normans  for  a  better  knowledge  of  the 
law  which  would  be  equally  recognized  as  good  by 
different  Slavonian  kins.  In  this  case  the  possession  of 
runes,  used  for  the  transmission  of  old  customs,  was  a 
decided  advantage  in  favour  of  the  Normans ;  but  in 
other  cases  there  are  faint  indications  that  the 
"eldest"  branch  of  the  stem,  the  supposed  mother- 
branch,  was  appealed  to  to  supply  the  judges,  and  its 
decisions  were  relied  upon  as  just ; 1  while  at  a  later 
epoch  we  see  a  distinct  tendency  towards  taking  the 
sentence-finders  from  the  Christian  clergy,  which,  at 
that  time,  kept  still  to  the  fundamental,  now  forgotten, 
principle  of  Christianity,  that  retaliation  is  no  act  of 
justice.  At  that  time  the  Christian  clergy  opened  the 
churches  as  places  of  asylum  for  those  who  fled  from 
blood  revenge,  and  they  willingly  acted  as  arbiters  in 
criminal  cases,  always  opposing  the  old  tribal  principle 
of  life  for  life  and  wound  for  wound.  In  short,  the 
deeper  we  penetrate  into  the  history  of  early  institu- 
tions, the  less  we  find  grounds  for  the  military  theory 
of  origin  of  authority.  Even  that  power  which  later 
on  became  such  a  source  of  oppression  seems,  on  the 
contrary,  to  have  found  its  origin  in  the  peaceful 
inclinations  of  the  masses. 

In  all  these  cases  the  fred,  which  often  amounted 

1  It  is  permissible  to  think  that  this  conception  (related  to  the 
conception  of  tanistry)  played  an  important  part  in  the  life  of  the 
period ;  but  research  has  not  yet  been  directed  that  way. 


160  MUTUAL  AID 

to  half  the  compensation,  went  to  the  folkmote,  and 
from  times  immemorial  it  used  to  be  applied  to  works 
of  common  utility  and  defence.  It  has  still  the  same 
destination  (the  erection  of  towers)  among  the  Kabyles 
and  certain  Mongolian  stems ;  and  we  have  direct 
evidence  that  even  several  centuries  later  the  judicial 
fines,  in  Pskov  and  several  French  and  German  cities, 
continued  to  be  used  for  the  repair  of  the  city  walls.1 
It  was  thus  quite  natural  that  the  fines  should  be 
handed  over  to  the  sentence-finder,  who  was  bound,  in 
return,  both  to  maintain  the  schola  of  armed  men  to 
whom  the  defence  of  the  territory  was  trusted,  and  to 
execute  the  sentences.  This  became  a  universal 
custom  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  even  when 
the  sentence-finder  was  an  elected  bishop.  The  germ 
of  a  combination  of  what  we  should  now  call  the 
judicial  power  and  the  executive  thus  made  its  appear- 
ance. But  to  these  two  functions  the  attributions  of 
the  duke  or  king  were  strictly  limited.  He  was  no 
ruler  of  the  people — the  supreme  power  still  belonging 
to  the  folkmote — not  even  a  commander  of  the  popular 
militia ;  when  the  folk  took  to  arms,  it  marched  under 
a  separate,  also  elected,  commander,  who  was  not  a 
subordinate,  but  an  equal  to  the  king.2  The  king 
was  a  lord  on  his  personal  domain  only.  In  fact,  in 
barbarian  language,  the  word  konung,  koning,  or 
cyning,  synonymous  with  the  Latin  rex,  had  no  other 
meaning  than  that  of  a  temporary  leader  or  chieftain 

1  It  was  distinctly  stated  in  the  charter  of  St.  Quentin  of  the  year 
1002  that  the  ransom  for  houses  which  had  to  be  demolished  for 
crimes  went  for  the  city  walls.     The  same  destination  was  given  to 
the  Ungeld  in  German  cities.     At  Pskov  the  cathedral  was  the  bank 
for  the  fines,  and  from  this  fund  money  was  taken  for  the  walls. 

2  Sohm,  Frankische  Rechts-  und  Gerichtsverfassung,  p.  23 ;    also 
Nitzsch,  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Volkes>  i.  78. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     161 

of  a  band  of  men.  The  commander  of  a  flotilla  of 
boats,  or  even  of  a  single  pirate  boat,  was  also  a 
konung,  and  till  the  present  day  the  commander  of 
fishing  in  Norway  is  named  Not-kong — "the  king  of 
the  nets." x  The  veneration  attached  later  on  to  the 
personality  of  a  king  did  not  yet  exist,  and  while 
treason  to  the  kin  was  punished  by  death,  the  slaying 
of  a  king  could  be  recouped  by  the  payment  of 
compensation  :  a  king  simply  was  valued  so  much 
more  than  a  freeman.2  And  when  King  Knu  (or 
Canute)  had  killed  one  man  of  his  own  schola,  the 
saga  represents  him  convoking  his  comrades  to  a 
thing  where  he  knelt  down  imploring  pardon.  He 
was  pardoned,  but  not  till  he  had  agreed  to  pay  nine 
times  the  regular  composition,  of  which  one-third  went 
to  himself  for  the  loss  of  one  of  his  men,  one-third 
to  the  relatives  of  the  slain  man,  and  one-third  (the 
fred)  to  the  schola?  In  reality,  a  complete  change 
had  to  be  accomplished  in  the  current  conceptions, 
under  the  double  influence  of  the  Church  and  the 
students  of  Roman  law,  before  an  idea  of  sanctity 
began  to  be  attached  to  the  personality  of  the  king. 
However,  it  lies  beyond  the  scope  of  these  essays 

1  See  the  excellent  remarks  on  this  subject  in  Augustin  Thierry's 
Lettres  sur  P  histoire  de  France,  yth  letter.     The  barbarian  translations 
of  parts  of  the  Bible  are  extremely  instructive  on  this  point. 

2  Thirty-six  times  more  than  a  noble,  according   to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon   law.      In    the   code   of  Rothari  the   slaying  of  a  king  is, 
however,  punished  by  death ;  but  (apart  from  Roman  influence)  this 
new  disposition  was  introduced  (in  646)  in  the  Lombardian  law — as 
remarked  by  Leo  and  Botta — to  cover  the  king  from  blood  revenge. 
The  king  being  at  that  time  the  executioner  of  his  own  sentences  (as 
the  tribe  formerly  was  of  its  own  sentences),  he  had  to  be  protected 
by  a  special  disposition,  the  more  so  as  several  Lombardian  kings 
before  Rothari  had  been  slain  in  succession  (Leo  and  Botta,  /.  c.,  i. 
66-90). 

3  Kaufmann,    Deutsche   Geschichte,  Bd.    I.   "Die  Germanen  der 
Urzeit,"  p.  133. 

M 


162  MUTUAL   AID 

to  follow  the  gradual  development  of  authority  out  of 
the  elements  just  indicated.  Historians,  such  as  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Green  for  this  country,  Augustin  Thierry, 
Michelet,  and  Luchaire  for  France,  Kaufmann,  Janssen, 
W.  Arnold,  and  even  Nitzsch,  for  Germany,  Leo  and 
Botta  for  Italy,  Byelaeff,  Kostomaroff,  and  their 
followers  for  Russia,  and  many  others,  have  fully  told 
that  tale.  They  have  shown  how  populations,  once 
free,  and  simply  agreeing  "to  feed"  a  certain  portion 
of  their  military  defenders,  gradually  became  the  serfs 
of  these  protectors ;  how  "  commendation "  to  the 
Church,  or  to  a  lord,  became  a  hard  necessity  for  the 
freeman  ;  how  each  lord's  and  bishop's  castle  became 
a  robber's  nest — how  feudalism  was  imposed,  in  a 
word — and  how  the  crusades,  by  freeing  the  serfs  who 
wore  the  cross,  gave  the  first  impulse  to  popular 
emancipation.  All  this  need  not  be  retold  in  this 
place,  our  chief  aim  being  to  follow  the  constructive 
genius  of  the  masses  in  their  mutual-aid  institutions. 

At  a  time  when  the  last  vestiges  of  barbarian 
freedom  seemed  to  disappear,  and  Europe,  fallen 
under  the  dominion  of  thousands  of  petty  rulers,  was 
marching  towards  the  constitution  of  such  theocracies 
and  despotic  States  as  had  followed  the  barbarian 
stage  during  the  previous  starts  of  civilization,  or  of 
barbarian  monarchies,  such  as  we  see  now  in  Africa, 
life  in  Europe  took  another  direction.  It  went  on  on 
lines  similar  to  those  it  had  once  taken  in  the  cities 
of  antique  Greece.  With  a  unanimity  which  seems 
almost  incomprehensible,  and  for  a  long  time  was  not 
understood  by  historians,  the  urban  agglomerations, 
down  to  the  smallest  burgs,  began  to  shake  off  the 
yoke  of  their  worldly  and  clerical  lords.  The  fortified 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL  CITY     163 

village  rose  against  the  lord's  castle,  defied  it  first, 
attacked  it  next,  and  finally  destroyed  it.  The  move- 
ment spread  from  spot  to  spot,  involving  every  town 
on  the  surface  of  Europe,  and  in  less  than  a  hundred 
years  free  cities  had  been  called  into  existence  on  the 
coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  North  Sea,  the  Baltic, 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  down  to  the  fjords  of  Scandinavia  ; 
at  the  feet  of  the  Apennines,  the  Alps,  the  Black 
Forest,  the  Grampians,  and  the  Carpathians ;  in  the 
plains  of  Russia,  Hungary,  France  and  Spain.  Every- 
where the  same  revolt  took  place,  with  the  same 
features,  passing  through  the  same  phases,  leading  to 
the  same  results.  Wherever  men  had  found,  or 
expected  to  find,  some  protection  behind  their  town 
walls,  they  instituted  their  "  co-jurations,"  their  "  fra- 
ternities," their  "  friendships,"  united  in  one  common 
idea,  and  boldly  marching  towards  a  new  life  of 
mutual  support  and  liberty.  And  they  succeeded  so 
well  that  in  three  or  four  hundred  years  they  had 
changed  the  very  face  of  Europe.  They  had  covered 
the  country  with  beautiful  sumptuous  buildings,  ex- 
pressing the  genius  of  free  unions  of  free  men, 
unrivalled  since  for  their  beauty  and  expressiveness ; 
and  they  bequeathed  to  the  following  generations  all 
the  arts,  all  the  industries,  of  which  our  present 
civilization,  with  all  its  achievements  and  promises 
for  the  future,  is  only  a  further  development.  And 
when  we  now  look  to  the  forces  which  have  produced 
these  grand  results,  we  find  them — not  in  the  genius  of 
individual  heroes,  not  in  the  mighty  organization  of 
huge  States  or  the  political  capacities  of  their  rulers, 
but  in  the  very  same  current  of  mutual  aid  and  support 
which  we  saw  at  work  in  the  village  community,  and 
which  was  vivified  and  reinforced  in  the  Middle  Ages. 


164  MUTUAL  AID 

by  a  new  form  of  unions,  inspired  by  the  very  same 
spirit  but  shaped  on  a  new  model — the  guilds. 

It  is  well  known  by  this  time  that  feudalism  did 
not  imply  a  dissolution  of  the  village  community. 
Although  the  lord  had  succeeded  in  imposing  servile 
labour  upon  the  peasants,  and  had  appropriated  for 
himself  such  rights  as  were  formerly  vested  in  the 
village  community  alone  (taxes,  mortmain,  duties  on 
inheritances  and  marriages),  the  peasants  had,  never- 
theless, maintained  the  two  fundamental  rights  of  their 
!  communities  :  the  common  possession  of  the  land,  and 
self-jurisdiction.  In  olden  times,  when  a  king  sent  his 
vogt  to  a  village,  the  peasants  received  him  with 
flowers  in  one  hand  and  arms  in  the  other,  and  asked 
him — which  law  he  intended  to  apply :  the  one  he 
found  in  the  village,  or  the  one  he  brought  with  him  ? 
And,  in  the  first  case,  they  handed  him  the  flowers  and 
accepted  him  ;  while  in  the  second  case  they  fought 
him.1  Now,  they  accepted  the  king's  or  the  lord's 
official  whom  they  could  not  refuse ;  but  they  main- 
tained the  folkmote's  jurisdiction,  and  themselves 
nominated  six,  seven,  or  twelve  judges,  who  acted 
with  the  lord's  judge,  in  the  presence  of  the  folkmote, 
as  arbiters  and  sentence-finders.  In  most  cases  the 
official  had  nothing  left  to  him  but  to  confirm  the 
sentence  and  to  levy  the  customary  fred.  This 
precious  right  of  self-jurisdiction,  which,  at  that  time, 
meant  self-administration  and  self-legislation,  had  been 
maintained  through  all  the  struggles ;  and  even  the 
lawyers  by  whom  Karl  the  Great  was  surrounded 
could  not  abolish  it ;  they  were  bound  to  confirm  it. 
At  the  same  time,  in  all  matters  concerning  the  com- 

1  Dr.  F.  Dahn,  Urgeschichte  der  germanischen   und  romanischen 
Viilker,  Berlin,  1881,  Bd.  I.  96. 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL  CITY     165 

munity's  domain,  the  folkmote  retained  its  supremacy 
and  (as  shown  by  Maurer)  often  claimed  submission 
from  the  lord  himself  in  land  tenure  matters.  No 
growth  of  feudalism  could  break  this  resistance ;  the 
village  community  kept  its  ground ;  and  when,  in 
the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  the  invasions  of  the 
Normans,  the  Arabs,  and  the  Ugrians  had  demon- 
strated that  military  scholce  were  of  little  value  for 
protecting  the  land,  a  general  movement  began  all 
over  Europe  for  fortifying  the  villages  with  stone 
walls  and  citadels.  Thousands  of  fortified  centres 
were  then  built  by  the  energies  of  the  village  com- 
munities ;  and,  once  they  had  built  their  walls,  once 
a  common  interest  had  been  created  in  this  new 
sanctuary — the  town  walls — they  soon  understood  that~ 
they  could  henceforward  resist  the  encroachments  of 
the  inner  enemies,  the  lords,  as  well  as  the  invasions 
of  foreigners.  A  new  life  of  freedom  began  toj 
develop  within  the  fortified  enclosures.  The  mediaeval 
city  was  born.1 

1  If  I  thus  follow  the  views  long  since  advocated  by  Maurer 
(Geschichte  der  Stddteverfassung  in  Deutschland,  Erlangen,  1869),  it 
is  because  he  has  fully  proved  the  uninterrupted  evolution  from  the 
village  community  to  the  mediaeval  city,  and  that  his  views  alone 
can  explain  the  universality  of  the  communal  movement.  Savigny 
and  Eichhorn  and  their  followers  have  certainly  proved  that  the 
traditions  of  the  Roman  municipia  had  never  totally  disappeared. 
But  they  took  no  account  of  the  village-community  period  which  the 
barbarians  lived  through  before  they  had  any  cities.  The  fact  is, 
that  whenever  mankind  made  a  new  start  in  civilization,  in  Greece, 
Rome,  or  middle  Europe,  it  passed  through  the  same  stages — the 
tribe,  the  village  community,  the  free  city,  the  state — each  one 
naturally  evolving  out  of  the  preceding  stage.  Of  course,  the 
experience  of  each  preceding  civilization  was  never  lost.  Greece 
(itself  influenced  by  Eastern  civilizations)  influenced  Rome,  and 
Rome  influenced  our  civilization  ;  but  each  of  them  began  from  the 
same  beginning — the  tribe.  And  just  as  we  cannot  say  that  our 
states  are  continuations  of  the  Roman  state,  so  also  can  we  not  say 
that  the  mediaeval  cities  of  Europe  (including  Scandinavia  and 


166  MUTUAL  AID 

No  period  of  history  could  better  illustrate  the 
constructive  powers  of  the  popular  masses  than  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  when  the  fortified 
villages  and  market-places,  representing  so  many 
"oases  amidst  the  feudal  forest,"  began  to  free  them- 
selves from  their  lord's  yoke,  and  slowly  elaborated 
the  future  city  organization  ;  but,  unhappily,  this  is  a 
period  about  which  historical  information  is  especially 
scarce :  we  know  the  results,  but  little  has  reached  us 
about  the  means  by  which  they  were  achieved.  Under 
the  protection  of  their  walls  the  cities'  folkmotes — 
either  quite  independent,  or  led  by  the  chief  noble 
or  merchant  families — conquered  and  maintained  the 
right  of  electing  the  military  defensor  and  supreme 
judge  of  the  town,  or  at  least  of  choosing  between 
those  who  pretended  to  occupy  this  position.  In  Italy 
the  young  communes  were  continually  sending  away 
their  defensors  or  domini,  fighting  those  who  refused 
to  go.  The  same  went  on  in  the  East.  In  Bohemia, 
rich  and  poor  alike  (Bohemicce  gentis  magni  et  parvi, 
nobiles  et  ignobiles)  took  part  in  the  election ; *  while 
the  vyeches  (folkmotes)  of  the  Russian  cities  regularly 
elected  their  dukes — always  from  the  same  Rurik 
family — covenanted  with  them,  and  sent  the  knyaz 
away  if  he  had  provoked  discontent.2  At  the  same 

Russia)  were  a  continuation  of  the  Roman  cities.  They  were  a 
continuation  of  the  barbarian  village  community,  influenced  to  a 
certain  extent  by  the  traditions  of  the  Roman  towns. 

1  M.  Kovalevsky,  Modern   Customs  and  Ancient  Laws  of  Russia 
(Ilchester  Lectures,  London,  1891,  lecture  4). 

2  A  considerable  amount  of  research  had  to  be  done  before  this 
character  of  the  so-called  udyelnyi  period  was  properly  established 
by  the  works  of  Byelaeff  (Tales  from  Russian  History),  Kostomaroff 
( The  Beginnings  of  Autocracy  in  Russia),  and  especially  Professor 
Sergievich  (The  Vyeche  and  the  Prince).     The  English  reader  may 

\£nd  some  information  about  this  period  in  the  just-named  work  of 


MUTUAL  AID    IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL   CITY     167 

time  in  most  cities  of  Western  and  Southern  Europe, 
the  tendency  was  to  take  for  defensor  a  bishop  whom 
the  city  had  elected  itself;  and  so  many  bishops  took 
the  lead  in  protecting  the  "immunities"  of  the  towns 
and  in  defending  their  liberties,  that  numbers  of  them 
were  considered,  after  their  death,  as  saints  and  special 
patrons  of  different  cities.  St.  Uthelred  of  Winchester, 
St.  Ulrik  of  Augsburg,  St.  Wolfgang  of  Ratisbon, 
St.  Heribert  of  Cologne,  St.  Adalbert  of  Prague,  and 
so  on,  as  well  as  many  abbots  and  monks,  became  so 
many  cities'  saints  for  having  acted  in  defence  of  popu- 
lar rights.1  And  under  the  new  defensors>  whether  laic 
or  clerical,  the  citizens  conquered  full  self-jurisdiction 
and  self-administration  for  their  folkmotes.2 

The  whole  process  of  liberation  progressed  by  a 
series  of  imperceptible  acts  of  devotion  to  the  com- 
mon cause,  accomplished  by  men  who  came  out  of  the 
masses — by  unknown  heroes  whose  very  names  have 
not  been  preserved  by  history.  The  wonderful  move- 
ment of  the  God's  peace  (treuga  Dei)  by  which  the 
popular  masses  endeavoured  to  put  a  limit  to  the 
endless  family  feuds  of  the  noble  families,  was  born 
in  the  young  towns,  the  bishops  and  the  citizens  trying 
to  extend  to  the  nobles  the  peace  they  had  established 

M.  Kovalevsky,  in  Rambaud's  History  of  Russia,  and,  in  a  short 
summary,  in  the  article  "  Russia  "  of  the  last  edition  of  Chambers'* 
Encyclopaedia. 

1  Ferrari,  Histoire  des  revolutions  d } Italic,  i.  257  ;   Kallsen,  Die 
deutschen  Stddte  im  Mittelalter,  Bd.  I.  (Halle,  1891). 

2  See  the  excellent  remarks  of  Mr.  G.  L.  Gomme  as  regards  the 
folkmote  of  London  ( The  Literature  of  Local  Institutions,  London, 
1886,  p.  76).     It  must,  however,  be  remarked  that  in  royal  cities  the 
folkmote  never  attained  the  independence  which  it  assumed  else- 
where.    It  is  even  certain  that  Moscow  and  Paris  were  chosen  by 
the  kings  and  the  Church  as  the  cradles  of  the  future  royal  authority 
in  the  State,  because  they  did  not  possess  the  tradition  of  folkmotes 
accustomed  to  act  as  sovereign  in  all  matters. 


i68  MUTUAL   AID 

within  their  town  walls.1  Already  at  that  period, 
the  commercial  cities  of  Italy,  and  especially  Amalfi 
(which  had  its  elected  consuls  since  844,  and  frequently 
changed  its  doges  in  the  tenth  century)  2  worked  out 
the  customary  maritime  and  commercial  law  which 
later  on  became  a  model  for  all  Europe ;  Ravenna 
elaborated  its  craft  organization,  and  Milan,  which  had 
made  its  first  revolution  in  980,  became  a  great  centre 
of  commerce,  its  trades  enjoying  a  full  independence 
since  the  eleventh  century.3  So  also  Bruges  and 
Ghent ;  so  also  several  cities  of  France  in  which  the 
Mahl  or  forum  had  become  a  quite  independent 
institution.4  And  already  during  that  period  began 
the  work  of  artistic  decoration  of  the  towns  by  works 
of  architecture,  which  we  still  admire  and  which 
loudly  testify  of  the  intellectual  movement  of  the 
times.  "  The  basilicas  were  then  renewed  in  almost 
all  the  universe,"  Raoul  Glaber  wrote  in  his  chronicle, 
and  some  of  the  finest  monuments  of  mediaeval  archi- 
tecture date  from  that  period :  the  wonderful  old 
church  of  Bremen  was  built  in  the  ninth  century, 
Saint  Marc  of  Venice  was  finished  in  1071,  and  the 
beautiful  dome  of  Pisa  in  1063.  In  fact,  the  intel- 

1  A.  Luchaire,  Les   Communes  fran$aises ;  also   Kluckohn,    Ge- 
schichte  des  Gottesfrieden,  1857.     L.  Se'michon  (La  paix  et  la  trkve 
de  Dieu,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1869)  has  tried  to  represent  the  communal 
movement  as  issued  from  that  institution.    In  reality,  the  treuga  Dei, 
like  the  league  started  under  Louis  le  Gros  for  the  defence  against 
both  the  robberies  of  the  nobles  and  the  Norman  invasions,  was  a 
thoroughly  popular  movement.     The  only  historian  who  mentions 
this  last  league — that  is,  Vitalis — describes  it  as  a  "popular  com- 
munity "  ("  Considerations  sur  1'histoire  de  France,"  in  vol.  iv.  of 
Aug.  Thierry's  QLuvres,  Paris,  1868,  p.  191  and  note). 

2  Ferrari,  i.  152,  263,  etc. 

3  Perrens,  Histoire  de  Florence,  i.  188 ;  Ferrari,  /.  c.,  i.  283. 

4  Aug.  Thierry,  Essai  sur  rhistoire  du  Tiers  Etat,  Paris,  1875,  p. 
414,  note. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL  CITY     169 

lectual  movement  which  has  been  described  as  the 
Twelfth  Century  Renaissance1  and  the  Twelfth  Cen- 
tury Rationalism — the  precursor  of  the  Reform  2 — 
date  from  that  period,  when  most  cities  were  still 
simple  agglomerations  of  small  village  communities 
enclosed  by  walls. 

However,  another  element,  besides  the  village- 
community  principle,  was  required  to  give  to  these 
growing  centres  of  liberty  and  enlightenment  the 
unity  of  thought  and  action,  and  the  powers  of 
initiative,  which  made  their  force  in  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries.  With  the  growing  diversity  of 
occupations,  crafts  and  arts,  and  with  the  growing 
commerce  in  distant  lands,  some  new  form  of  union 
was  required,  and  this  necessary  new  element  was 
supplied  by  the  guilds.  Volumes  and  volumes  have 
been  written  about  these  unions  which,  under  the 
name  of  guilds,  brotherhoods,  friendships  and  dru- 
zhestva,  minne,  artels  in  Russia,  esnaifs  in  Servia  and 
Turkey,  amkari  in  Georgia,  and  so  on,  took  such  a 
formidable  development  in  mediaeval  times  and  played 
such  an  important  part  in  the  emancipation  of  the 
cities.  But  it  took  historians  more  than  sixty  years 
before  the  universality  of  this  institution  and  its  true 
characters  were  understood.  Only  now,  when  hun- 
dreds of  guild  statutes  have  been  published  and  studied, 
and  their  relationship  to  the  Roman  collegia,  and  the 
earlier  unions  in  Greece  and  in  India,3  is  known,  can 

1  F.  Rocquain,  "La  Renaissance  au  XIP  siecle,"  in  fctudes  sur 
Fhistoire  de  France,  Paris,  1875,  pp.  55-117. 

2  N.  Kostomaroff,  "  The  Rationalists  of  the  Twelfth  Century,"  in 
his  Monographies  and  Researches  (Russian). 

3  Very  interesting  facts  relative  to  the  universality  of  guilds  will  be 
found  in  "Two  Thousand  Years  of  Guild   Life,"  by  Rev.  J.  M. 


170  MUTUAL  AID 

we  maintain  with  full  confidence  that  these  brother- 
hoods were  but  a  further  development  of  the  same 
principles  which  we  saw  at  work  in  the  gens  and  the 
village  community. 

Nothing  illustrates  better  these  mediaeval  brother- 
hoods than  those  temporary  guilds  which  were  formed 
on  board  ships.  When  a  ship  of  the  Hansa  had 
accomplished  her  first  half-day  passage  after  having 
left  the  port,  the  captain  (Schiffer)  gathered  all  crew 
and  passengers  on  the  deck,  and  held  the  following 
language,  as  reported  by  a  contemporary  : — 

" '  As  we  are  now  at  the  mercy  of  God  and  the  waves,'  he 
said,  '  each  one  must  be  equal  to  each  other.  And  as  we  are 
surrounded  by  storms,  high  waves,  pirates  and  other  dangers, 
we  must  keep  a  strict  order  that  we  may  bring  our  voyage  to 
a  good  end.  That  is  why  we  shall  pronounce  the  prayer  for 
a  good  wind  and  good  success,  and,  according  to  marine  law, 
we  shall  name  the  occupiers  of  the  judges'  seats  (Schoffen- 
stellen)'  Thereupon  the  crew  elected  a  Vogt  and  four  scabini, 
to  act  as  their  judges.  At  the  end  of  the  voyage  the  Vogt 
and  the  scabini  abdicated  their  functions  and  addressed  the 
crew  as  follows  : — '  What  has  happened  on  board  ship,  we 
must  pardon  to  each  other  and  consider  as  dead  (todt  und  ab 
sein  lassen).  What  we  have  judged  right,  was  for  the  sake  of 
justice.  This  is  why  we  beg  you  all,  in  the  name  of  honest 
justice,  to  forget  all  the  animosity  one  may  nourish  against 
another,  and  to  swear  on  bread  and  salt  that  he  will  not  think 
of  it  in  a  bad  spirit.  If  any  one,  however,  considers  himself 
wronged,  he  must  appeal  to  the  land  Vogt  and  ask  justice 
from  him  before  sunset.'  On  landing,  the  Stock  with  the  fred- 
fines  was  handed  over  to  the  Vogt  of  the  sea-port  for  distri- 
bution among  the  poor." J 

This  simple  narrative,  perhaps  better  than  anything 

Lambert,  Hull,  1891.  On  the  Georgian  amkari,  see  S.  Eghiazarov, 
Gorodskiye  Tsekhi  ("  Organization  of  Transcaucasian  Amkari "),  in 
Memoirs  of  the  Caucasian  Geographical  Society,  xiv.  2,  1891. 

1  ],  D.  Wunderer's  "Reisebericht"in  Fi chard's  Frankfurter  Archiv, 
ii.  245  ;  quoted  by  Janssen,  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Volkes,  i.  355. 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL   CITY     171 

else,  depicts  the  spirit  of  the  mediaeval  guilds.  Like 
organizations  came  into  existence  wherever  a  group 
of  men — fishermen,  hunters,  travelling  merchants, 
builders,  or  settled  craftsmen — came  together  for  a 
common  pursuit.  Thus,  there  was  on  board  ship  the 
naval  authority  of  the  captain  ;  but,  for  the  very  success 
of  the  common  enterprise,  all  men  on  board,  rich  and 
poor,  masters  and  crew,  captain  and  sailors,  agreed  to 
be  equals  in  their  mutual  relations,  to  be  simply  men, 
bound  to  aid  each  other  and  to  settle  their  possible 
disputes  before  judges  elected  by  all  of  them.  So  also 
when  a  number  of  craftsmen — masons,  carpenters, 
stone-cutters,  etc. — came  together  for  building,  say, 
a  cathedral,  they  all  belonged  to  a  city  which  had  its 
political  organization,  and  each  of  them  belonged 
moreover  to  his  own  craft ;  but  they  were  united 
besides  by  their  common  enterprise,  which  they  knew 
better  than  any  one  else,  and  they  joined  into  a  body 
united  by  closer,  although  temporary,  bonds ;  they 
founded  the  guild  for  the  building  of  the  cathedral.1 
We  may  see  the  same  till  now  in  the  Kabylian  fof:2 
the  Kabyles  have  their  village  community  ;  but  this 
union  is  not  sufficient  for  all  political,  commercial,  and 
personal  needs  of  union,  and  the  closer  brotherhood  of 
the  fof  is  constituted. 

As  to  the  social  characters  of  the  mediaeval  guild,  any 
guild-statute  may  illustrate  them.  Taking,  for  instance, 
the  skraa  of  some  early  Danish  guild,  we  read  in  it, 
first,  a  statement  of  the  general  brotherly  feelings 
which  must  reign  in  the  guild  ;  next  come  the  regula- 
tions relative  to  self-jurisdiction  in  cases  of  quarrels 

1  Dr.  Leonard  Ennen,  Der  Dom  zu  Koln^  Historische  Einleitung, 
Koln,  1871,  pp.  46,  50. 

2  See  previous  chapter. 


i;2  MUTUAL  AID 

arising  between  two  brothers,  or  a  brother  and  a 
stranger ;  and  then,  the  social  duties  of  the  brethren 
are  enumerated.  If  a  brother's  house  is  burned,  or  he 
has  lost  his  ship,  or  has  suffered  on  a  pilgrim's  voyage, 
all  the  brethren  must  come  to  his  aid.  If  a  brother 
falls  dangerously  ill,  two  brethren  must  keep  watch  by 
his  bed  till  he  is  out  of  danger,  and  if  he  dies,  the 
brethren  must  bury  him — a  great  affair  in  those  times 
of  pestilences — and  follow  him  to  the  church  and  the 
grave.  After  his  death  they  must  provide  for  his 
children,  if  necessary  ;  very  often  the  widow  becomes 
a  sister  to  the  guild.1 

These   two   leading    features    appeared    in    every 

brotherhood  formed  for  any  possible  purpose.     In  each 

case  the  members  treated  each  other  as,  and  named 

each  other,  brother  and  sister  ;  2  all  were  equals  before 

the  guild.     They  owned  some  "  chattel "  (cattle,  land, 

buildings,  places  of  worship,  or  "  stock  ")  in  common. 

All  brothers  took  the  oath  of  abandoning  all  feuds  of 

'  old ;    and,    without    imposing    upon    each    other   the 

obligation  of  never  quarrelling  again,  they  agreed  that 

^  no  quarrel  should   degenerate    into  a  feud,  or  into  a 

;  law-suit  before  another  court  than  the  tribunal  of  the 

1  brothers  themselves.     And  if  a  brother  was  involved 

in  a  quarrel  with  a  stranger  to  the  guild,  they  agreed  to 

support  him  for  bad  and  for  good  ;  that  is,  whether  he 

was  unjustly  accused  of  aggression,  or  really  was  the 

.aggressor,    they  had    to   support   him,    and   to    bring 

1  Kofod  Ancher,  Om  gamle  Danske  Gilder  og  deres  Undergang, 
Copenhagen,  1785.     Statutes  of  a  Knu  guild. 

2  Upon  the  position  of  women  in  guilds,  see  Miss  Toulmin  Smith's 
introductory  remarks  to  the  English  Guilds  of  her  father.     One  of 
the  Cambridge  statutes  (p.  281)  of  the  year  1503  is  quite  positive  in 
the  following  sentence  :  "  Thys  statute  is  made  by  the  comyne  assent 
of  all  the  bretherne  and  sisterne  of  alhallowe  yelde." 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     173 

things  to  a  peaceful  end.  So  long  as  his  was  not  a 
secret  aggression — in  which  case  he  would  have  been 
treated  as  an  outlaw — the  brotherhood  stood  by  him.1 
If  the  relatives  of  the  wronged  man  wanted  to  revenge 
the  offence  at  once  by  a  new  aggression,  the  brother- 
hood supplied  him  with  a  horse  to  run  away,  or  with  a 
boat,  a  pair  of  oars,  a  knife  and  a  steel  for  striking 
light ;  if  he  remained  in  town,  twelve  brothers  accom- 
panied him  to  protect  him  ;  and  in  the  meantime  they 
arranged  the  composition.  They  went  to  court  to 
support  by  oath  the  truthfulness  of  his  statements,  and 
if  he  was  found  guilty  they  did  not  let  him  go  to  full 
ruin  and  become  a  slave  through  not  paying  the  due 
compensation  :  they  all  paid  it,  just  as  the  gens  did  in 
olden  times.  Only  when  a  brother  had  broken  the 
faith  towards  his  guild-brethren,  or  other  people,  he 
was  excluded  from  the  brotherhood  "  with  a  Nothing's 
name  "  (tha  seal  han  maeles  of  brodrescap  met  Hidings 
nafn).2 

Such  were  the  leading  ideas  of  those  brotherhoods 
which  gradually  covered  the  whole  of  mediaeval  life. 
In  fact,  we  know  of  guilds  among  all  possible  profes- 
sions :  guilds  of  serfs,3  guilds  of  freemen,  and  guilds 
of  both  serfs  and  freemen  ;  guilds  called  into  life  for 
the  special  purpose  of  hunting,  fishing,  or  a  trading 

1  In  mediaeval  times,  only  secret  aggression  was  treated  as  a  murder. 
Blood-revenge  in  broad  daylight  was  justice ;  and  slaying  in  a  quarrel 
was  not  murder,  once  the  aggressor  showed  his  willingness  to  repent 
and  to  repair  the  wrong  he  had  done.     Deep  traces  of  this  distinction 
still  exist  in  modern  criminal  law,  especially  in  Russia. 

2  Kofod  Ancher,  /.  c.     This  old  booklet  contains  much  that  has 
been  lost  sight  of  by  later  explorers. 

8  They  played  an  important  part  in  the  revolts  of  the  serfs,  and 
were  therefore  prohibited  several  times  in  succession  in  the  second 
half  of  the  ninth  century.  Of  course,  the  king's  prohibitions 
remained  a  dead  letter. 


174  MUTUAL  AID 

expedition,  and  dissolved  when  the  special  purpose 
had  been  achieved  ;  and  guilds  lasting  for  centuries  in 
a  given  craft  or  trade.  And,  in  proportion  as  life  took 
an  always  greater  variety  of  pursuits,  the  variety  in 
the  guilds  grew  in  proportion.  So  we  see  not  only 
merchants,  craftsmen,  hunters,  and  peasants  united  in 
guilds  ;  we  also  see  guilds  of  priests,  painters,  teachers  of 
primary  schools  and  universities,  guilds  for  performing 
the  passion  play,  for  building  a  church,  for  developing 
the  "  mystery "  of  a  given  school  of  art  or  craft,  or 
for  a  special  recreation — even  guilds  among  beggars, 
executioners,  and  lost  women,  all  organized  on  the 
same  double  principle  of  self-jurisdiction  and  mutual 
support.1  For  Russia  we  have  positive  evidence 
showing  that  the  very  "  making  of  Russia "  was  as 
much  the  work  of  its  hunters',  fishermen's,  and  traders' 
artels  as  of  the  budding  village  communities,  and  up 
to  the  present  day  the  country  is  covered  with  artels? 
These  few  remarks  show  how  incorrect  was  the 
view  taken  by  some  early  explorers  of  the  guilds  when 
they  wanted  to  see  the  essence  of  the  institution  in  its 

1  The  mediaeval   Italian  painters  were  also   organized  in  guilds, 
which  became  at  a  later  epoch  Academies  of  art.     If  the  Italian  art 
of  those  times  is  impressed  with  so  much  individuality  that  we  dis- 
tinguish, even  now,  between  the  different  schools  of  Padua,  Bassano, 
Treviso,  Verona,  and  so  on,  although  all  these  cities  were  under  the 
sway  of  Venice,  this  was  due — J.  Paul  Richter  remarks — to  the  fact 
that  the  painters,  of  each  city  belonged  to  a  separate  guild,  friendly 
with  the  guilds  of  other  towns,  but  leading  a  separate  existence.     The 
oldest  guild-statute  known  is  that  of  Verona,  dating  from  1303,  but 
evidently  copied  from  some  much  older  statute.     "  Fraternal  assist- 
ance in  necessity  of  whatever  kind,"  "  hospitality  towards  strangers, 
when    passing    through    the    town,    as    thus   information   may   be 
obtained  about  matters  which  one  may  like  to  learn,"  and  "  obliga- 
tion of  offering  comfort  in  case  of  debility  "  are  among  the  obligations 
of  the  members  (Nineteenth  Century,  Nov.  1890,  and  Aug.  1892). 

2  The  chief  works  on  the  artels  are  named  in  the  article  "  Russia  " 
of  the  Encydofcedia  Britannica^  gth  edition,  p.  84. 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL  CITY     175 

yearly  festival.  In  reality,  the  day  of  the  common 
meal  was  always  the  day,  or  the  morrow  of  the  day,  of 
election  of  aldermen,  of  discussion  of  alterations  in  the 
statutes,  and  very  often  the  day  of  judgment  of  quarrels 
that  had  risen  among  the  brethren,1  or  of  renewed 
allegiance  to  the  guild.  The  common  meal,  like  the 
festival  at  the  old  tribal  folkmote — the  mahl  or  malum 
— or  the  Buryate  aba,  or  the  parish  feast  and  the 
harvest  supper,  was  simply  an  affirmation  of  brother- 
hood. It  symbolized  the  times  when  everything  was 
kept  in  common  by  the  clan.  This  day,  at  least,  all 
belonged  to  all ;  all  sate  at  the  same  table  and  partook 
of  the  same  meal.  Even  at  a  much  later  time  the 
inmate  of  the  almshouse  of  a  London  guild  sat  this 
day  by  the  side  of  the  rich  alderman.  As  to  the 
distinction  which  several  explorers  have  tried  to 
establish  between  the  old  Saxon  "  frith  guild  "  and  the 
so-called  "social"  or  "religious"  guilds — all  were 
frith  guilds  in  the  sense  above  mentioned,2  and  all  were 

1  See,  for  instance,  the  texts  of  the  Cambridge  guilds  given  by 
Toulmin  Smith  (English  Guilds,  London,  1870,  pp.  274-276),  from 
which  it  appears  that  the  "  generall  and  principall  day "  was  the 
"  eleccioun  day ; "  or,  Ch.  M.  Code's  The  Early  History  of  the  Guild 
of  the  Merchant  Taylors,  London,  1888,  i.  45;  and  so  on.     For  the 
renewal  of  allegiance,  see  the  J6msviking  saga,  mentioned  in  Pappen- 
heim's  Altddnische  Schutzgilden,  Breslau,  1885,  p.  67.     It  appears 
very  probable  that  when  the  guilds  began  to  be  prosecuted,  many  of 
them  inscribed  in  their  statutes  the  meal  day  only,  or  their  pious 
duties,  and  only  alluded  to  the  judicial  function  of  the  guild  in  vague 
words ;  but  this  function  did  not  disappear  till  a  very  much  later 
time.     The  question,  "Who  will  be  my  judge?"  has   no  meaning 
now,  since  the  State  has  appropriated  for  its  bureaucracy  the  organi- 
zation of  justice  ;  but  it  was  of  primordial  importance  in  mediaeval 
times,  the  more  so   as   self- jurisdiction   meant   self-administration. 
It  must  also  be  remarked  that  the  translation  of  the  Saxon  and 
Danish  "  guild-bretheren,"  or  "  brodrae,"  by  the  Latin  convivii  must 
also  have  contributed  to  the  above  confusion. 

2  See  the  excellent  remarks  upon  the  frith  guild  by  J.  R.  Green  and 
Mrs  Green  in  The  Conquest  of  England,  London,  1883,  pp.  229-230. 


i;6  MUTUAL  AID 

religious  in  the  sense  in  which  a  village  community  or 
a  city  placed  under  the  protection  of  a  special  saint 
is  social  and  religious.  If  the  institution  of  the  guild 
has  taken  such  an  immense  extension  in  Asia,  Africa, 
and  Europe,  if  it  has  lived  thousands  of  years,  reappear- 
ing again  and  again  when  similar  conditions  called  it 
into  existence,  it  is  because  it  was  much  more  than 
an  eating  association,  or  an  association  for  going  to 
church  on  a  certain  day,  or  a  burial  club.  It  answered 
to  a  deeply  inrooted  want  of  human  nature ;  and  it 
embodied  all  the  attributes  which  the  State  appro- 
priated later  on  for  its  bureaucracy  and  police,  and  much 
more  than  that.  It  was  an  association  for  mutual 
support  in  all  circumstances  and  in  all  accidents  of  life, 
"  by  deed  and  advise,"  and  it  was  an  organization  for 
maintaining  justice — with  this  difference  from  the 
State,  that  on  all  these  occasions  a  humane,  a  brotherly 
element  was  introduced  instead  of  the  formal  element 
which  is  the  essential  characteristic  of  State  interference. 
Even  when  appearing  before  the  guild  tribunal,  the 
guild-brother  answered  before  men  who  knew  him  well 
and  had  stood  by  him  before  in  their  daily  work,  at  the 
common  meal,  in  the  performance  of  their  brotherly 
duties  :  men  who  were  his  equals  and  brethren  indeed, 
not  theorists  of  law  nor  defenders  of  some  one 
else's  interests.1 

It  is  evident  that  an  institution  so  well  suited  to 
serve  the  need  of  union,  without  depriving  the 
individual  of  his  initiative,  could  but  spread,  grow,  and 
fortify.  The  difficulty  was  only  to  find  such  form  as 
would  permit  to  federate  the  unions  of  the  guilds 
without  interfering  with  the  unions  of  the  village  com- 

1  See  Appendix  X. 


MUTUAL    AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL  CITY     177 

munities,  and  to  federate  all  these  into  one  harmonious 
whole.  And  when  this  form  of  combination  had  been 
found,  and  a  series  of  favourable  circumstances  per- 
mitted the  cities  to  affirm  their  independence,  they  did 
so  with  a  unity  of  thought  which  can  but  excite  our 
admiration,  even  in  our  century  of  railways,  telegraphs, 
and  printing.  Hundreds  of  charters  in  which  the 
cities  inscribed  their  liberation  have  reached  us, 
and  through  all  of  them — notwithstanding  the  infinite 
variety  of  details,  which  depended  upon  the  more  or 
less  greater  fulness  of  emancipation — the  same  leading 
ideas  run.  The  city  organized  itself  as  a  federation  of 
both  small  village  communities  and  guilds. 

"  All  those  who  belong  to  the  friendship  of  the  town  " — so 
runs  a  charter  given  in  1188  to  the  burghesses  of  Aire  by 
Philip,  Count  of  Flanders — "have  promised  and  confirmed 
by  faith  and  oath  that  they  will  aid  each  other  as  brethren,  in 
whatever  is  useful  and  honest.  That  if  one  commits  against 
another  an  offence  in  words  or  in  deeds,  the  one  who  has 
suffered  therefrom  will  not  take  revenge,  either  himself  or  his 
people  ...  he  will  lodge  a  complaint  and  the  offender  will 
make  good  for  his  offence,  according  to  what  will  be  pro- 
nounced by  twelve  elected  judges  acting  as  arbiters.  And  if 
the  offender  or  the  offended,  after  having  been  warned  thrice, 
does  not  submit  to  the  decision  of  the  arbiters,  he  will  be 
excluded  from  the  friendship  as  a  wicked  man  and  a  perjuror.1 

"  Each  one  of  the  men  of  the  commune  will  be  faithful  to 
his  con-juror,  and  will  give  him  aid  and  advice,  according  to 
what  justice  will  dictate  him" — the  Amiens  and  Abbeville 
charters  say.  "All  will  aid  each  other,  according  to  their 
powers,  within  the  boundaries  of  the  Commune,  and  will  not 
suffer  that  any  one  takes  anything  from  any  one  of  them,  or 
makes  one  pay  contributions  " — do  we  read  in  the  charters  of 
Soissons,  Compiegne,  Senlis,  and  many  others  of  the  same 
type.2  And  so  on  with  countless  variations  on  the* same  theme. 

1  Recueil  des  ordonnances  des  rois  de  France,  t.  xii.  562  ;  quoted  by 
Aug.  Thierry  in  Considerations  sur  fhistoire  de  France^  p.  196,  ed. 
1 2  mo. 

2  A.  Luchaire,  Les  Communes  franfaiscs,  pp.  45-46. 

N 


i;8  MUTUAL  AID 

"  The  Commune,"  Guilbert  de  Nogent  wrote,  "  is  an  oath  of 
mutual  aid  (mutui  adjutorii  conjuratid]  ...  A  new  and  detest- 
able word.  Through  it  the  serfs  (capite  sensi)  are  freed  from 
all  serfdom ;  through  it,  they  can  only  be  condemned  to  a 
legally  determined  fine  for  breaches  of  the  law;  through  it, 
they  cease  to  be  liable  to  payments  which  the  serfs  always 
used  to  pay." x 

The  same  wave  of  emancipation  ran,  in  the  twelfth 
century,  through  all  parts  of  the  continent,  involving 
both  rich  cities  and  the  poorest  towns.  And  if  we 
may  say  that,  as  a  rule,  the  Italian  cities  were  the  first 
to  free  themselves,  we  can  assign  no  centre  from 
which  the  movement  would  have  spread.  Very  often 
a  small  burg  in  central  Europe  took  the  lead  for  its 
region,  and  big  agglomerations  accepted  the  little 
town's  charter  as  a  model  for  their  own.  Thus,  the 
charter  of  a  small  town,  Lorris,  was  adopted  by  eighty- 
three  towns  in  south-west  France,  and  that  of  Beaumont 
became  the  model  for  over  five  hundred  towns  and 
cities  in  Belgium  and  France.  Special  deputies  were 
dispatched  by  the  cities  to  their  neighbours  to  obtain 
a  copy  from  their  charter,  and  the  constitution  was 
framed  upon  that  model.  However,  they  did  not 
simply  copy  each  other:  they  framed  their  own 
charters  in  accordance  with  the  concessions  they  had 
obtained  from  their  lords ;  and  the  result  was  that,  as 
remarked  by  an  historian,  the  charters  of  the  mediaeval 
communes  offer  the  same  variety  as  the  Gothic  archi- 
tecture of  their  churches  and  cathedrals.  The  same 
leading  ideas  in  all  of  them — the  cathedral  symbolizing 
the  union  of  parish  and  guild  in  the  city, — and  the 
same  infinitely  rich  variety  of  detail. 

Self-jurisdiction  was  the  essential  point,  and  self- 
jurisdiction  meant  self-administration.  But  the  com- 

1  Guilbert  de  Nogent,  De  vita  sua,  quoted  by  Luchaire,  /.  c.,  p.  14. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL  CITY     179 

mune  was  not  simply  an  "  autonomous  "  part  of  the 
State — such  ambiguous  words  had  not  yet  been  in- 
vented by  that  time — it  was  a  State  in  itself.  It  had 
the  right  of  war  and  peace,  of  federation  and  alliance 
with  its  neighbours.  It  was  sovereign  in  its  own 
affairs,  and  mixed  with  no  others.  The  supreme 
political  power  could  be  vested  entirely  in  a  democratic 
forum,  as  was  the  case  in  Pskov,  whose  vyeche  sent 
and  received  ambassadors,  concluded  treaties,  accepted 
and  sent  away  princes,  or  went  on  without  them  for 
dozens  of  years ;  or  it  was  vested  in,  or  usurped  by, 
an  aristocracy  of  merchants  or  even  nobles,  as  was  the 
case  in  hundreds  of  Italian  and  middle  European  cities. 
The  principle,  nevertheless,  remained  the  same :  the 
!city  was  a  State  and — what  was  perhaps  still  more 
remarkable — when  the  power  in  the  city  was  usurped 
by  an  aristocracy  of  merchants  or  even  nobles,  the 
inner  life  of  the  city  and  the  democratism  of  its  daily 
life  did  not  disappear :  they  depended  but  little  upon 
what  may  be  called  the  political  form  of  the  State. 

The  secret  of  this  seeming  anomaly  lies  in  the  fact 
that  a  mediaeval  city  was  not  a  centralized  State. 
During  the  first  centuries  of  its  existence,  the  city 
hardly  could  be  named  a  State  as  regards  its  interior 
organization,  because  the  middle  ages  knew  no  more 
of  the  present  centralization  of  functions  than  of  the 
present  territorial  centralization.  Each  group  had  its 
share  of  sovereignty.  The  city  was  usually  divided 
into  four  quarters,  or  into  five  to  seven  sections 
radiating  from  a  centre,  each  quarter  or  section  roughly 
corresponding  to  a  certain  trade  or  profession  which 
prevailed  in  it,  but  nevertheless  containing  inhabitants 
of  different  social  positions  and  occupations — nobles, 
merchants,  artisans,  or  even  half-serfs ;  and  each 


i8o  MUTUAL  AID 

section  or  quarter  constituted  a  quite  independent 
agglomeration.  In  Venice,  each  island  was  an  in- 
dependent political  community.  It  had  its  own  or- 
ganized trades,  its  own  commerce  in  salt,  its  own 
jurisdiction  and  administration,  its  own  forum  ;  and 
the  nomination  of  a  doge  by  the  city  changed  nothing 
in  the  inner  independence  of  the  units.1  In  Cologne, 
we  see  the  inhabitants  divided  into  Gebursckaften  and 
Heimschaften  (vicinia),  i.  e.  neighbour  guilds,  which 
dated  from  the  Franconian  period.  Each  of  them 
had  its  judge  (Burrichter)  and  the  usual  twelve  elected 
sentence-finders  (Schijffen),  its  Vogt,  and  its  greve 
or  commander  of  the  local  militia.2  The  story  of  early 
London  before  the  Conquest — Mr.  Green  says — is 
that  "of  a  number  of  little  groups  scattered  here  and 
there  over  the  area  within  the  walls,  each  growing  up 
with  its  own  life  and  institutions,  guilds,  sokes,  religious 
houses  and  the  like,  and  only  slowly  drawing  together 
into  a  municipal  union." 3  And  if  we  refer  to  the 
annals  of  the  Russian  cities,  Novgorod  and  Pskov, 
both  of  which  are  relatively  rich  in  local  details,  we 
find  the  section  (konets)  consisting  of  independent 
streets  (ulitsa\  each  of  which,  though  chiefly  peopled 
with  artisans  of  a  certain  craft,  had  also  merchants  and 
landowners  among  its  inhabitants,  and  was  a  separate 
community.  It  had  the  communal  responsibility  of 
all  members  in  case  of  crime,  its  own  jurisdiction 
and  administration  by  street  aldermen  (ulichanskiye 
starosty),  its  own  seal  and,  in  case  of  need,  its  own 

1  Lebret,  Histoire  de   Vcnise,  i.  393 ;  also  Marin,  quoted  by  Leo 
and  Botta  in  Histoire  de  rifalie,  French  edition,  1844,  t.  i.  500. 

2  Dr.  W.  Arnold,    Verfassungsgeschichte  der  deutschen  Freistddte, 
1854,  Bd.  ii.  227  seq. ;   Ennen,   Geschichte  der  Stadt  JCoeln,  Bd.  i. 
228-229  ;  also  the  documents  published  by  Ennen  and  Eckert. 

3  Conquest  of  England,  1883,9.  453. 


MUTUAL  AID    IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL   CITY     181 

forum  ;  its  own  militia,  as  also  its  self-elected  priests 
and  its  own  collective  life  and  collective  enterprise.1 

The  mediaeval  city  thus  appears  as  a  double  federa- 
tion :  of  all  householders  united  into  small  territorial 
unions — the  street,  the  parish,  the  section — and  of 
individuals  united  by  oath  into  guilds  according  to  their 
professions  ;  the  former  being  a  produce  of  the  village- 
community  origin  of  the  city,  while  the  second  is  a 
subsequent  growth  called  to  life  by  new  conditions. 

To  guarantee  liberty,  self-administration,  and  peace 
was  the  chief  aim  of  the  mediaeval  city  ;  and  labour,  as 
we  shall  presently  see  when  speaking  of  the  craft  guilds, 
was  its  chief  foundation.  But  "  production  "  did  not 
absorb  the  whole  attention  of  the  mediaeval  economist. 
With  his  practical  mind,  he  understood  that  "  con- 
sumption "  must  be  guaranteed  in  order  to  obtain 
production  ;  and  therefore,  to  provide  for  "  the  common 
first  food  and  lodging  of  poor  and  rich  alike  "  (gemeine 
notdurft  vnd  gemach  armer  vnd  richer'2']  was  the 
fundamental  principle  in  each  city.  The  purchase 
of  food  supplies  and  other  first  necessaries  (coal, 
wood,  etc.)  before  they  had  reached  the  market, 
or  altogether  in  especially  favourable  conditions  from 
which  others  would  be  excluded — the  preempcio,  in  a 
word — was  entirely  prohibited.  Everything  had  to  go 
to  the  market  and  be  offered  there  for  every  one's 
purchase,  till  the  ringing  of  the  bell  had  closed  the 
market.  Then  only  could  the  retailer  buy  the  re- 
mainder, and  even  then  his  profit  should  be  an  "  honest 

1  Byelaeff,  Russian  History,  vols.  ii.  and  iii. 

2  W.   Gramich,    Verfassungs-  und  Venualtungsgeschichte  der  Stadt 
Wiirzburg  im    13.   bis  zum    15.  Jahrhundert,  Wiirzburg,  1882,  p. 
34- 


182  MUTUAL  AID 

profit"  only.1  Moreover,  when  corn  was  bought  by  a 
baker  wholesale  after  the  close  of  the  market,  every 
citizen  had  the  right  to  claim  part  of  the  corn  (about 
half-a-quarter)  for  his  own  use,  at  wholesale  price,  if 
he  did  so  before  the  final  conclusion  of  the  bargain  ; 
and  reciprocally,  every  baker  could  claim  the  same  if 
the  citizen  purchased  corn  for  re-selling  it.  In  the 
first  case,  the  corn  had  only  to  be  brought  to  the  town 
mill  to  be  ground  in  its  proper  turn  for  a  settled  price, 
and  the  bread  could  be  baked  in  the  four  banal,  or 
communal  oven.2  In  short,  if  a  scarcity  visited  the 
city,  all  had  to  suffer  from  it  more  or  less  ;  but  apart 
from  the  calamities,  so  long  as  the  free  cities  existed 
no  one  could  die  in  their  midst  from  starvation,  as  is 
unhappily  too  often  the  case  in  our  own  times. 

However,  all  such  regulations  belong  to  later  periods 
of  the  cities'  life,  while  at  an  earlier  period  it  was  the 
city  itself  which  used  to  buy  all  food  supplies  for  the 
use  of  the  citizens.  The  documents  recently  published 
by  Mr.  Gross  are  quite  positive  on  this  point  and  fully 
support  his  conclusion  to  the  effect  that  the  cargoes  of 
subsistences  "  were  purchased  by  certain  civic  officials 
in  the  name  of  the  town,  and  then  distributed  in  shares 

1  When  a  boat  brought  a  cargo  of  coal  to  Wiirzburg,  coal  could 
only  be  sold  in  retail  during  the  first  eight  days,  each  family  being 
entitled  to  no  more  than   fifty   basketfuls.     The   remaining   cargo 
could  be   sold   wholesale,  but  the  retailer  was  allowed  to  raise  a 
zittlicher  profit  only,  the  unzittlicher,  or  dishonest  profit,  being  strictly 
forbidden  (Gramich,  /.  c.}.     Same  in  London  (Liber  albus,  quoted  by 
Ochenkowski,  p.  161),  and,  in  fact,  everywhere. 

2  See  Fagniez,  Etudes  sur  I' Industrie  et  la  classe  industrielle  a  Paris 
au  XHIme  et  XlVme  stick,  Paris,  1877,  pp.  155  seq.    It  hardly  need 
be  added  that  the  tax  on  bread,  and  on  beer  as  well,  was  settled  after 
careful  experiments  as  to  the  quantity  of  bread  and  beer  which  could 
be  obtained  from  a  given  amount  of  corn.     The  Amiens  archives 
contain  the  minutes  of  such  experiences  (A.  de  Calonne,  I.e.  pp.  77, 
93).    Also  those  of  London  (Ochenkowski,  England's  wirthschaftliche 
Entwickelung,  etc.,  Jena,  1879,  P-  I^5)- 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL  CITY      183 

among  the  merchant  burgesses,  no  one  being  allowed 
to  buy  wares  landed  in  the  port  unless  the  municipal 
authorities  refused  to  purchase  them.  This  seems — 
he  adds — to  have  been  quite  a  common  practice  in 
England,  Ireland,  Wales  and  Scotland."1  Even  in 
the  sixteenth  century  we  find  that  common  purchases 
of  corn  were  made  for  the  "  comoditie  and  profitt  in 
all  things  of  this  ....  Citie  and  Chamber  of  London, 
and  of  all  the  Citizens  and  Inhabitants  of  the  same  as 
moche  as  in  us  lieth" — as  the  Mayor  wrote  in  I565.2 
In  Venice,  the  whole  of  the  trade  in  corn  is  well  known 
to  have  been  in  the  hands  of  the  city  ;  the  "quarters," 
on  receiving  the  cereals  from  the  board  which  adminis- 
trated the  imports,  being  bound  to  send  to  every 
citizen's  house  the  quantity  allotted  to  him.3  In 
France,  the  city  of  Amiens  used  to  purchase  salt  and 
to  distribute  it  to  all  citizens  at  cost  price ; 4  and  even 
now  one  sees  in  many  French  towns  the  halles  which 

1  Ch.  Gross,    The  Guild  Merchant,  Oxford,  1890,  i.   135.     His 
documents  prove  that  this  practice  existed  in  Liverpool  (ii.  148-150), 
Waterford  in  Ireland,  Neath  in  Wales,  and  Linlithgow  and  Thurso  in 
Scotland.     Mr.  Gross's  texts  also  show  that  the  purchases  were  made 
for  distribution,  not  only  among  the  merchant  burgesses,  but  "  upon 
all  citsains  and   commynalte"   (p.    136,  note},    or,   as   the   Thurso 
ordinance  of  the  seventeenth  century  runs,  to  "  make  offer  to  the 
merchants,  craftsmen,  and  inhabitants  of  the  said  burgh,  that  they 
may  have  their  proportion  of  the  same,  according  to  their  necessitys 
and  ability." 

2  The  Early  History  of  the  Guild  of  Merchant  Taylors,  by  Charles 
M.  Clode,  London,  1888,    i.  361,  appendix  10 ;  also   the    follow- 
ing appendix  which   shows   that   the  same  purchases   were   made 
in  1546. 

8  Cibrario,  Les  conditions  economiques  de  f  Italic  au  temps  de  Dante, 
Paris,  1865,  p.  44. 

4  A.  de  Calonne,  La  vie  municipale  au  XVme  siecle  dans  le  Nord  de 
la  France,  Paris,  1880,  pp.  12-16.  In  1485  the  city  permitted  the 
export  to  Antwerp  of  a  certain  quantity  of  corn,  "the  inhabitants  of 
Antwerp  being  always  ready  to  be  agreeable  to  the  merchants  and 
burgesses  of  Amiens"  (ibid.,  pp.  75-77  and  texts). 


1 84  MUTUAL  AID 

formerly  were  municipal  depots  for  corn  and  salt.1 
In  Russia  it  was  a  regular  custom  in  Novgorod  and 
Pskov. 

The  whole  matter  relative  to  the  communal  purchases 
for  the  use  of  the  citizens,  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  used  to  be  made,  seems  not  to  have  yet  received 
proper  attention  from  the  historians  of  the  period  ;  but 
there  are  here  and  there  some  very  interesting  facts 
which  throw  a  new  light  upon  it.  Thus  there  is, 
among  Mr.  Gross's  documents,  a  Kilkenny  ordinance 
of  the  year  1367,  from  which  we  learn  how  the  prices 
of  the  goods  were  established.  "  The  merchants  and 
the  sailors,"  Mr.  Gross  writes,  "were  to  state  on  oath 
the  first  cost  of  the  goods  and  the  expenses  of  trans- 
portation. Then  the  mayor  of  the  town  and  two 
discreet  men  were  to  name  the  price  at  which  the 
wares  were  to  be  sold."  The  same  rule  held  good  in 
Thurso  for  merchandise  coming  "  by  sea  or  land." 
This  way  of  "naming  the  price"  so  well  answers  to 
the  very  conceptions  of  trade  which  were  current  in 
mediaeval  times  that  it  must  have  been  all  but  universal. 
To  have  the  price  established  by  a  third  person  was  a 
very  old  custom  ;  and  for  all  interchange  within  the 
city  it  certainly  was  a  widely-spread  habit  to  leave  the 
establishment  of  prices  to  "discreet  men  " — to  a  third 
party — and  not  to  the  vendor  or  the  buyer.  But  this 
order  of  things  takes  us  still  further  back  in  the 
history  of  trade — namely,  to  a  time  when  trade  in 
staple  produce  was  carried  on  by  the  whole  city, 
and  the  merchants  were  only  the  commissioners,  the 
trustees,  of  the  city  for  selling  the  goods  which  it 
exported.  A  Waterford  ordinance,  published  also  by 
Mr.  Gross,  says  "  that  all  manere  of  marchandis  what 

1  A.  Babeau,  La  ville  sous  Fanrien  rkgime,  Paris,  1880. 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL  CITY     185 

so  ever  kynde  thei  be  of  .  .  .  shal  be  bought  by  the 
Maire  and  balives  which  bene  commene  biers  [common 
buyers,  for  the  town]  for  the  time  being,  and  to 
distribute  the  same  on  freemen  of  the  citie  (the  propre 
goods  of  free  citisains  and  inhabitants  only  excepted)." 
This  ordinance  can  hardly  be  explained  otherwise  than 
by  admitting  that  all  the  exterior  trade  of  the  town 
was  carried  on  by  its  agents.  Moreover,  we  have 
direct  evidence  of  such  having  been  the  case  for 
Novgorod  and  Pskov.  It  was  the  Sovereign  Nov- 
gorod and  the  Sovereign  Pskov  who  sent  their  caravans 
of  merchants  to  distant  lands. 

We  know  also  that  in  nearly  all  mediaeval  cities  of 
Middle  and  Western  Europe,  the  craft  guilds  used  to 
buy,  as  a  body,  all  necessary  raw  produce,  and  to  sell 
the  produce  of  their  work  through  their  officials,  and 
it  is  hardly  possible  that  the  same  should  not  have| 
been  done  for  exterior  trade — the  more  so  as  it  is  well 
known  that  up  to  the  thirteenth  century,  not  only  all 
merchants  of  a  given  city  were  considered  abroad  as 
responsible  in  a  body  for  debts  contracted  by  any  one 
of  them,  but  the  whole  city  as  well  was  responsible  for 
the  debts  of  each  one  of  its  merchants.  Only  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  century  the  towns  on  the  Rhine 
entered  into  special  treaties  abolishing  this  responsi- 
bility.1 And  finally  we  have  the  remarkable  Ipswich 
document  published  by  Mr.  Gross,  from  which  docu- 
ment we  learn  that  the  merchant  guild  of  this  town  was 
constituted  by  all  who  had  the  freedom  of  the  city,  and 
who  wished  to  pay  their  contribution  ("  their  hanse  ") 
to  the  guild,  the  whole  community  discussing  all  together 
how  better  to  maintain  the  merchant  guild,  and  giving 
it  certain  privileges.  The  merchant  guild  of  Ipswich 

1  Ennen,  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Koln,  i.  491,  492,  also  texts. 


186  MUTUAL   AID 

thus  appears  rather  as  a  body  of  trustees  of  the  town 
than  as  a  common  private  guild. 

In  short,  the  more  we  begin  to  know  the  mediaeval 
city  the  more  we  see  that  it  was  not  simply  a  political 
organization  for  the  protection  of  certain  political 
liberties.  It  was  an  attempt  at  organizing,  on  a  much 
grander  scale  than  in  a  village  community,  a  close 
union  for  mutual  aid  and  support,  for  consumption  and 
production,  and  for  social  life  altogether,  without 
imposing  upon  men  the  fetters  of  the  State,  but  giving 
full  liberty  of  expression  to  the  creative  genius  of  each 
separate  group  of  individuals  in  art,  crafts,  science, 
commerce,  and  political  organization.  How  far  this 
attempt  has  been  successful  will  be  best  seen  when  we 
have  analyzed  in  the  next  chapter  the  organization  of 
labour  in  the  mediaeval  city  and  the  relations  of  the 
cities  with  the  surrounding  peasant  population. 


CHAPTER    VI 

MUTUAL   AID    IN    THE    MEDIAEVAL    CITY 

Likeness  and  diversity  among  the  mediaeval  cities. — The  craft- 
guilds  :  State-attributes  in  each  of  them. — Attitude  of  the  city  towards 
the  peasants ;  attempts  to  free  them. — The  lords. — Results  achieved 
by  the  mediaeval  city :  in  arts,  in  learning. — Causes  of  decay. 

THE  mediaeval  cities  were  not  organized  upon  some 
preconceived  plan  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  an  out- 
side legislator.  Each  of  them  was  a  natural  growth  in 
the  full  sense  of  the  word — an  always  varying  result 
of  struggle  between  various  forces  which  adjusted  and 
re-adjusted  themselves  in  conformity  with  their  relative 
energies,  the  chances  of  their  conflicts,  and  the  support 
they  found  in  their  surroundings.  Therefore,  there 
are  not  two  cities  whose  inner  organization  and 
destinies  would  have  been  identical.  Each  one,  taken 
separately,  varies  from  century  to  century.  And  yet, 
when  we  cast  a  broad  glance  upon  all  the  cities  of 
Europe,  the  local  and  national  unlikenesses  disappear, 
and  we  are  struck  to  find  among  all  of  them  a  wonder- 
ful resemblance,  although  each  has  developed  for  itself, 
independently  from  the  others,  and  in  different  con- 
ditions. A  small  town  in  the  north  of  Scotland,  with 
its  population  of  coarse  labourers  and  fishermen  ;  a 
rich  city  of  Flanders,  with  its  world-wide  commerce, 
luxury,  love  of  amusement  and  animated  life ;  an 
Italian  city  enriched  by  its  intercourse  with  the  East, 

187 


1 88  MUTUAL   AID 

and  breeding  within  its  walls  a  refined  artistic  taste 
and  civilization  ;  and  a  poor,  chiefly  agricultural,  city  in 
the  marsh  and  lake  district  of  Russia,  seem  to  have 
little  in  common.  And  nevertheless,  the  leading  lines 
of  their  organization,  and  the  spirit  which  animates 
them,  are  imbued  with  a  strong  family  likeness. 
Everywhere  we  see  the  same  federations  of  small 
communities  and  guilds,  the  same  "  sub-towns  "  round 
the  mother  city,  the  same  folkmote,  and  the  same 
insigns  of  its  independence.  The  defensor  of  the  city, 
under  different  names  and  in  different  accoutrements, 
represents  the  same  authority  and  interests ;  food 
supplies,  labour  and  commerce,  are  organized  on 
closely  similar  lines ;  inner  and  outer  struggles  are 
fought  with  like  ambitions ;  nay,  the  very  formulae 
used  in  the  struggles,  as  also  in  the  annals,  the  ordin- 
ances, and  the  rolls,  are  identical ;  and  the  architectural 
monuments,  whether  Gothic,  Roman,  or  Byzantine  in 
style,  express  the  same  aspirations  and  the  same 
ideals ;  they  are  conceived  and  built  in  the  same  way. 
Many  dissemblances  are  mere  differences  of  age,  and 
those  disparities  between  sister  cities  which  are  real 
are  repeated  in  different  parts  of  Europe.  The  unity 
of  the  leading  idea  and  the  identity  of  origin  make 
up  for  differences  of  climate,  geographical  situation, 
wealth,  language  and  religion.  This  is  why  we  can 
speak  of  the  mediaeval  city  as  of  a  well-defined  phase 
of  civilization  ;  and  while  every  research  insisting  upon 
local  and  individual  differences  is  most  welcome,  we 
may  still  indicate  the  chief  lines  of  development  which 
are  common  to  all  cities.1 

1  The  literature  of  the  subject  is  immense ;  but  there  is  no  work 
yet  which  treats  of  the  mediaeval  city  as  of  a  whole.  For  the  French 
Communes,  Augustin  Thierry's  Lettres  and  Considerations  sur 


MUTUAL  AID   IN  THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     189 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  protection  which  used  to 
be  accorded  to  the  market-place  from  the  earliest 
barbarian  times  has  played  an  important,  though  not 
an  exclusive,  part  in  the  emancipation  of  the  mediaeval 
city.  The  early  barbarians  knew  no  trade  within  their 
village  communities  ;  they  traded  with  strangers  only, 
at  certain  definite  spots,  on  certain  determined  days. 
And,  in  order  that  the  stranger  might  come  to  the 
barter-place  without  risk  of  being  slain  for  some  feud 
which  might  be  running  between  two  kins,  the  market 
was  always  placed  under  the  special  protection  of  all 
kins.  It  was  inviolable,  like  the  place  of  worship 
under  the  shadow  of  which  it  was  held.  With  the 
Kabyles  it  is  still  annaya,  like  the  footpath  along 

Thistoire  de  France  still  remain  classical,  and  Luchaire's  Communes 
franchises  is  an  excellent  addition  on  the  same  lines.  For  the  cities  of 
Italy,  the  great  work  of  Sismondi  (Histoire  des  republiques  italiennes 
du  moyen  age,  Paris,  1826,  16  vols.),  Leo  and  Botta's  History  of  Italy, 
Ferrari's  Revolutions  d'ltalie,  and  Hegel's  Geschichte  der  Stddtever- 
fassung  in  Italien,  are  the  chief  sources  of  general  information.  For 
Germany  we  have  Maurer's  Stddteverfassung,  Barthold's  Geschichte 
der  deutschen  Stddte,  and,  of  recent  works,  Hegel's  Stddte  und  Gilden 
der  germanischen  Volker  (2  vols.  Leipzig,  1891),  and  Dr.  Otto 
Kallsen's  Die  deutschen  Stddte  im  Mittelalter  (2  vols.  Halle,  1891),  as 
also  Janssen's  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Volkes  (5  vols.  1886),  which, 
let  us  hope,  will  soon  be  translated  into  English  (French  translation 
in  1892).  For  Belgium,  A.  Wauters,  Les  Libert'es  communales 
(Bruxelles,  1869-78,  3  vols.).  For  Russia,  ByelaefTs,  KostomarofFs 
and  Sergievich's  works.  And  finally,  for  England,  we  posses  one  of 
the  best  works  on  cities  of  a  wider  region  in  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green's  Town 
Life  in  the  Fifteenth  Century  (2  vols.  London,  1894).  We  have, 
moreover,  a  wealth  of  well-known  local  histories,  and  several  excel- 
lent works  of  general  or  economical  history  which  I  have  so  often 
mentioned  in  this  and  the  preceding  chapter.  The  richness  of  liter- 
ature consists,  however,  chiefly  in  separate,  sometimes  admirable, 
researches  into  the  history  of  separate  cities,  especially  Italian  and 
German  ;  the  guilds ;  the  land  question  ;  the  economical  principles  of 
the  time ;  the  economical  importance  of  guilds  and  crafts ;  the  leagues 
between  cities  (the  Hansa) ;  and  communal  art.  An  incredible 
wealth  of  information  is  contained  in  works  of  this  second  category, 
of  which  only  some  of  the  more  important  are  named  in  these  pages. 


190  MUTUAL  AID 

which  women  carry  water  from  the  well ;  neither  must 
be  trodden  upon  in  arms,  even  during  inter-tribal  wars. 
In  mediseval  times  the  market  universally  enjoyed  the 
same  protection.1  No  feud  could  be  prosecuted  on  the 
place  whereto  people  came  to  trade,  nor  within  a 
certain  radius  from  it  ;  and  if  a  quarrel  arose  in  the 
motley  crowd  of  buyers  and  sellers,  it  had  to  be 
brought  before  those  under  whose  protection  the 
market  stood — the  community's  tribunal,  or  the 
bishop's,  the  lord's,  or  the  king's  judge.  A  stranger 
who  came  to  trade  was  a  guest,  and  he  went  on  under 
this  very  name.  Even  the  lord  who  had  no  scruples 
about  robbing  a  merchant  on  the  high  road,  respected 
the  Weichbild,  that  is,  the  pole  which  stood  in  the 
market-place  and  bore  either  the  king's  arms,  or  a 
glove,  or  the  image  of  the  local  saint,  or  simply  a 
cross,  according  to  whether  the  market  was  under  the 
protection  of  the  king,  the  lord,  the  local  church,  or 
the  folkmote — the  vyeck&? 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  the  self-jurisdiction  of 
the  city  could  develop  out  of  the  special  jurisdiction  in 
the  market-place,  when  this  last  right  was  conceded, 
willingly  or  not,  to  the  city  itself.  And  such  an  origin 

1  Kulischer,  in  an  excellent  essay  on  primitive  trade  (Zeitschrift fur 
Volkerpsychologie,  Bd.   x.  380),  also  points  out  that,  according  to 
Herodotus,  the  Argippaeans  were  considered  inviolable,  because  the 
trade  between  the  Scythians  and  the  northern  tribes  took  place  on 
their  territory.     A  fugitive  was  sacred  on  their  territory,  and  they 
were   often   asked  to  act  as   arbiters    for    their    neighbours.    See 
Appendix  XI. 

2  Some  discussion  has  lately  taken  place  upon  the  Weichbild  and 
the  Weichbild-lzw,  which  still  remain  obscure  (see  Zopfl,  Alterthumer 
des  deutschen  Reichs  und  Rechts,  iii.  29  ;  Kallsen,  i.  316).    The  above 
explanation  seems  to  be  the  more  probable,  but,  of  course,  it  must 
be  tested  by  further  research.    It  is  also  evident  that,  to  use  a  Scotch 
expression,  the  "  mercet  cross  "  could  be  considered  as  an  emblem  of 
Church  jurisdiction,  but  we  find  it  both  in  bishop  cities  and  in  those 
in  which  the  folkmote  was  sovereign. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     191 

of  the  city's  liberties,  which  can  be  traced  in  very  many 
cases,  necessarily  laid  a  special  stamp  upon  their  sub- 
sequent development.  It  gave  a  predominance  to  the 
trading  part  of  the  community.  The  burghers  who 
possessed  a  house  in  the  city  at  the  time  being,  and 
were  co-owners  in  the  town-lands,  constituted  very  often 
a  merchant  guild  which  held  in  its  hands  the  city's 
trade  ;  and  although  at  the  outset  every  burgher,  rich 
and  poor,  could  make  part  of  the  merchant  guild,  and 
the  trade  itself  seems  to  have  been  carried  on  for  the 
entire  city  by  its  trustees,  the  guild  gradually  became 
a  sort  of  privileged  body.  It  jealously  prevented  the 
outsiders  who  soon  began  to  flock  into  the  free  cities 
from  entering  the  guild,  and  kept  the  advantages  result- 
ing from  trade  for  the  few  "  families"  which  had  been 
burghers  at  the  time  of  the  emancipation.  There 
evidently  was  a  danger  of  a  merchant  oligarchy  being 
thus  constituted.  But  already  in  the  tenth,  and  still 
more  during  the  two  next  centuries,  the  chief  crafts, 
also  organized  in  guilds,  were  powerful  enough  to  check 
the  oligarchic  tendencies  of  the  merchants. 

The  craft  guild  was  then  a  common  seller  of  its 
produce  and  a  common  buyer  of  the  raw  materials,  and 
its  members  were  merchants  and  manual  workers  at 
the  same  time.  Therefore,  the  predominance  taken  by 
the  old  craft  guilds  from  the  very  beginnings  of  the  free 
city  life  guaranteed  to  manual  labour  the  high  position 
which  it  afterwards  occupied  in  the  city.1  In  fact,  in  a 

1  For  all  concerning  the  merchant  guild  see  Mr.  Gross's  exhaustive 
work,  The  Guild  Merchant  (Oxford,  1890,  2  vols.);  also  Mrs. 
Green's  remarks  in  Town  Life  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  vol.  ii.  chaps, 
v.  viii.  x. ;  and  A.  Doren's  review  of  the  subject  in  Schmoller's 
Forschungen,  vol.  xii.  If  the  considerations  indicated  in  the 
previous  chapter  (according  to  which  trade  was  communal  at  its 
beginnings)  prove  to  be  correct,  it  will  be  permissible  to  suggest  as 
a  probable  hypothesis  that  the  guild  merchant  was  a  body  entrusted 


192  MUTUAL  AID 

mediaeval  city  manual  labour  was  no  token  of  in- 
feriority;  it  bore,  on  the  contrary,  traces  of  the  high 
respect  it  had  been  kept  in  in  the  village  community. 
Manual  labour  in  a  "  mystery  "  was  considered  as  a 
pious  duty  towards  the  citizens :  a  public  function 
(Amt],  as  honourable  as  any  other.  An  idea  of 
"justice"  to  the  community,  of  "right"  towards  both 
producer  and  consumer,  which  would  seem  so  ex- 
travagant now,  penetrated  production  and  exchange. 
The  tanner's,  the  cooper's,  or  the  shoemaker's  work 
must  be  "just,"  fair,  they  wrote  in  those  times. 
Wood,  leather  or  thread  which  are  used  by  the  artisan 
must  be  "right"  ;  bread  must  be  baked  "in  justice," 
and  so  on.  Transport  this  language  into  our  present 
life,  and  it  would  seem  affected  and  unnatural ;  but  it 
was  natural  and  unaffected  then,  because  the  mediaeval 
artisan  did  not  produce  for  an  unknown  buyer,  or  to 
throw  his  goods  into  an  unknown  market.  He  pro- 
duced for  his  guild  first ;  for  a  brotherhood  of  men 
who  knew  each  other,  knew  the  technics  of  the  craft, 
and,  in  naming  the  price  of  each  product,  could 
appreciate  the  skill  displayed  in  its  fabrication  or  the 
labour  bestowed  upon  it.  Then  the  guild,  not  the 
separate  producer,  offered  the  goods  for  sale  in  the 
community,  and  this  last,  in  its  turn,  offered  to  the 
brotherhood  of  allied  communities  those  goods  which 
were  exported,  and  assumed  responsibility  for  their 


with  commerce  in  the  interest  of  the  whole  city,  and  only  gradually 
became  a  guild  of  merchants  trading  for  themselves;  while  the 
merchant  adventurers  of  this  country,  the  Novgorod  povolniki  (free 
colonizers  and  merchants)  and  the  mercati  personati,  would  be  those 
to  whom  it  was  left  to  open  new  markets  and  new  branches  of  com- 
merce for  themselves.  Altogether,  it  must  be  remarked  that  the 
origin  of  the  mediaeval  city  can  be  ascribed  to  no  separate  agency. 
It  was  a  result  of  many  agencies  in  different  degrees. 


MUTUAL  AID    IN   THE    MEDIEVAL  CITY     193 

quality.  With  such  an  organization,  it  was  the 
ambition  of  each  craft  not  to  offer  goods  of  inferior 
quality,  and  technical  defects  or  adulterations  became 
a  matter  concerning  the  whole  community,  because,  an 
ordinance  says,  "they  would  destroy  public  con- 
fidence." 1  Production  being  thus  a  social  duty,  placed 
under  the  control  of  the  whole  amitas,  manual  labour 
could  not  fall  into  the  degraded  condition  which  it 
occupies  now,  so  long  as  the  free  city  was  living. 

A  difference  between  master  and  apprentice,  or 
between  master  and  worker  (compayne,  Geselle],  existed 
in  the  mediaeval  cities  from  their  very  beginnings ;  but 
this  was  at  the  outset  a  mere  difference  of  age  and 
skill,  not  of  wealth  and  power.  After  a  seven  years' 
apprenticeship,  and  after  having  proved  his  knowledge 
and  capacities  by  a  work  of  art,  the  apprentice  became 
a  master  himself.  And  only  much  later,  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  after  the  royal  power  had  destroyed 
the  city  and  the  craft  organization,  was  it  possible  to 
become  master  in  virtue  of  simple  inheritance  or 
wealth.  But  this  was  also  the  time  of  a  general  decay 
in  mediaeval  industries  and  art. 

There  was  not  much  room  for  hired  work  in  the  early 
flourishing  periods  of  the  mediaeval  cities,  still  less  for 
individual  hirelings.  The  work  of  the  weavers,  the 
archers,  the  smiths,  the  bakers,  and  so  on,  was 
performed  for  the  craft  and  the  city  ;  and  when  crafts- 
men were  hired  in  the  building  trades,  they  worked  as 
temporary  corporations  (as  they  still  do  in  the  Russian 
artdls),  whose  work  was  paid  en  bloc.  Work  for  a 
master  began  to  multiply  only  later  on  ;  but  even  in  this 
case  the  worker  was  paid  better  than  he  is  paid  now, 

1  Janssen's  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Volkes^  i.  315;  Gramich's 
Wiirzburg ;  and,  in  fact,  any  collection  of  ordinances. 

O 


194  MUTUAL   AID 

even  in  this  country,  and  very  much  better  than  he 
used  to  be  paid  all  over  Europe  in  the  first  half  of  this 
century.  Thorold  Rogers  has  familiarized  English 
readers  with  this  idea ;  but  the  same  is  true  for  the 
Continent  as  well,  as  is  shown  by  the  researches  of 
Falke  and  Schonberg,  and  by  many  occasional  indica- 
tions. Even  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  mason,  a 
carpenter,  or  a  smith  worker  would  be  paid  at  Amiens 
four  sols  a  day,  which  corresponded  to  forty-eight 
pounds  of  bread,  or  to  the  eighth  part  of  a  small  ox 
(bouvard).  In  Saxony,  the  salary  of  the  Geselle  in  the 
building  trade  was  such  that,  to  put  it  in  Falke's 
words,  he  could  buy  with  his  six  days'  wages  three 
sheep  and  one  pair  of  shoes.1  The  donations  of 
workers  (Geselle]  to  cathedrals  also  bear  testimony  of 
their  relative  well-being,  to  say  nothing  of  the  glorious 
donations  of  certain  craft  guilds  nor  of  what  they  used 
to  spend  in  festivities  and  pageants.2  In  fact,  the  more 
we  learn  about  the  mediaeval  city,  the  more  we  are 
convinced  that  at  no  time  has  labour  enjoyed  such 
conditions  of  prosperity  and  such  respect  as  when  city 
life  stood  at  its  highest. 

More  than  that ;  not  only  many  aspirations  of  our 

1  Falke,  Geschichtliche  Statistik,  i.  373-393,  and  ii.  66  ;  quoted  in 
Janssen's  Geschichte,  i.  339 ;  J.  D.  Blavignac,  in  Comptes  et  depenses 
de  la  construction  du  docker  de  Saint-Nicolas  a  Fribourg  en  Suisse, 
comes  to  a  similar  conclusion.  For  Amiens,  De  Calonne's  Vie  Muni- 
cipale,    p.    99   and   Appendix.     For  a   thorough   appreciation   and 
graphical  representation  of  the  mediaeval  wages  in  England  and  their 
value  in  bread  and   meat,  see  G.   Steffen's  excellent  article   and 
curves   in    The  Nineteenth    Century  for    1891,    and    Studier   b'fver 
lonsystemets  historia  i  England,  Stockholm,   1895. 

2  To  quote  but  one  example  out  of  many  which  may  be  found 
in  Schonberg's  and  Falke's  works,  the  sixteen  shoemaker  workers 
(Schusterknechte)  of  the  town  Xanten,  on  the  Rhine,  gave,  for  erecting 
a  screen  and  an  altar  in  the  church,  75  guldens  of  subscriptions,  and 
12  guldens  out  of  their  box,  which  money  was  worth,  according  to 
the  best  valuations,  ten  times  its  present  value. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL  CITY     195 

modern  radicals  were  already  realized  in  the  middle 
ages,  but  much  of  what  is  described  now  as  Utopian 
was  accepted  then  as  a  matter  of  fact.  We  are  laughed 
at  when  we  say  that  work  must  be  pleasant,  but — 
"  every  one  must  be  pleased  with  his  work,"  a  mediaeval 
Kuttenberg  ordinance  says,  "  and  no  one  shall,  while 
doing  nothing  (mit  nichts  thuii),  appropriate  for  him- 
self what  others  have  produced  by  application  and 
work,  because  laws  must  be  a  shield  for  application  and 
work."1  And  amidst  all  present  talk  about  an  eight 
hours'  day,  it  may  be  well  to  remember  an  ordinance 
of  Ferdinand  the  First  relative  to  the  Imperial  coal 
mines,  which  settled  the  miner's  day  at  eight  hours, 
"as  it  used  to  be  of  old  "  (wie  vor  Alters  herkommeri), 
and  work  on  Saturday  afternoon  was  prohibited. 
Longer  hours  were  very  rare,  we  are  told  by  Janssen, 
while  shorter  hours  were  of  common  occurrence.  In 
this  country,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  Rogers  says, 
"  the  workmen  worked  only  forty-eight  hours  a  week."  2 
The  Saturday  half-holiday,  too,  which  we  consider  as  a 
modern  conquest,  was  in  reality  an  old  mediaeval 
institution  ;  it  was  bathing-time  for  a  great  part  of  the 
community,  while  Wednesday  afternoon  was  bathing- 
time  for  the  Geselle?  And  although  school  meals  did 

1  Quoted  by  Janssen,  /.  c.  i.  343. 

2  The  Economical  Interpretation  of  History,  London,  1891,  p.  303. 

3  Janssen,  /.  c.     See  also  Dr.   Alwin  Schultz,  Deutsches  Leben  im 
XIV.  und  XV.  Jahrhundert,  grosse  Ausgabe,  Wien,   1892,  pp.  67 
seq.     At  Paris,  the  day  of  labour  varied  from  seven  to  eight  hours  in 
the  winter  to  fourteen  hours  in  summer  in  certain  trades,  while  in 
others  it  was  from  eight  to  nine  hours  in  winter,  to  from  ten  to  twelve 
in  summer.     All  work  was  stopped  on  Saturdays  and  on  about  twenty- 
five  other  days  (jours  de  commun  de  vile  foire)  at  four  o'clock,  while 
on  Sundays  and  thirty  other  holidays  there  was  no  work  at  all.     The 
general  conclusion  is,  that  the  mediaeval  worker  worked  less  hours, 
all  taken,  than  the  present-day  worker  (Dr.  E.  Martin  Saint-Le'on, 
Histoire  des  corporations^  p.  121). 


196  MUTUAL  AID 

not  exist — probably  because  no  children  went  hungry 
to  school — a  distribution  of  bath-money  to  the  children 
whose  parents  found  difficulty  in  providing  it  was 
habitual  in  several  places.  As  to  Labour  Congresses, 
they  also  were  a  regular  feature  of  the  middles  ages. 
In  some  parts  of  Germany  craftsmen  of  the  same  trade, 
belonging  to  different  communes,  used  to  come  together 
every  year  to  discuss  questions  relative  to  their  trade, 
the  years  of  apprenticeship,  the  wandering  years,  the 
wages,  and  so  on;  and  in  1572,  the  Hanseatic  towns 
formally  recognized  the  right  of  the  crafts  to  come 
together  at  periodical  congresses,  and  to  take  any 
resolutions,  so  long  as  they  were  not  contrary  to  the 
cities'  rolls,  relative  to  the  quality  of  goods.  Such 
Labour  Congresses,  partly  international  like  the  Hansa 
itself,  are  known  to  have  been  held  by  bakers,  founders, 
smiths,  tanners,  sword-makers  and  cask-makers.1 

The  craft  organization  required,  of  course,  a  close 
supervision  of  the  craftsmen  by  the  guild,  and  special 
jurates  were  always  nominated  for  that  purpose.  But 
it  is  most  remarkable  that,  so  long  as  the  cities  lived 
their  free  life,  no  complaints  were  heard  about  the 
supervision  ;  while,  after  the  State  had  stepped  in, 
confiscating  4the  property  of  the  guilds  and  destroying 
their  independence  in  favour  of  its  own  bureaucracy, 
the  complaints  became  simply  countless.2  On  the 
other  hand,  the  immensity  of  progress  realized  in  all 

1  W.  Stieda,  "Hansische  Vereinbarungen  uber  stadtisches  Gewerbe 
im   XIV.   und   XV.   Jahrhundert,"    in   Hansische  Geschichtsbldtter, 
Jahrgang  1886,  p.  121.     Schonberg's  Wirthschaftliche  Bedeutung  der 
Zunfte ;  also,  partly,  Roscher. 

2  See  Toulmin  Smith's  deeply-felt  remarks  about  the  royal  spolia- 
tion of  the  guilds,  in  Miss  Smith's  Introduction  to  English   Guilds. 
In  France  the  same  royal  spoliation  and  abolition  of  the  guilds'  juris- 
diction was  begun  from  1306,  and  the  final  blow  was  struck  in  1382 
(Fagniez,  /.  c.  pp.  52-54). 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     197 

arts  under  the  mediaeval  guild  system  is  the  best  proof 
that  the  system  was  no  hindrance  to  individual  initiative.1 
The  fact  is,  that  the  mediaeval  guild,  like  the  mediaeval 
parish,  "street,"  or  "quarter,"  was  not  a  body  of 
citizens,  placed  under  the  control  of  State  function- 
aries ;  it  was  a  union  of  all  men  connected  with  a 
given  trade :  jurate  buyers  of  raw  produce,  sellers  of 
manufactured  goods,  and  artisans — masters,  "  com- 
paynes,"  and  apprentices.  For  the  inner  organization 
of  the  trade  its  assembly  was  sovereign,  so  long  as  it 
did  not  hamper  the  other  guilds,  in  which  case  the 
matter  was  brought  before  the  guild  of  the  guilds — the 
city.  But  there  was  in  it  something  more  than  that. 
It  had  its  own  self-jurisdiction,  its  own  military  force, 
its  own  general  assemblies,  its  own  traditions  of  strug- 
gles, glory,  and  independence,  its  own  relations  with 
other  guilds  of  the  same  trade  in  other  cities  :  it  had, 
in  a  word,  a  full  organic  life  which  could  only  result 
from  the  integrality  of  the  vital  functions.  When  the 
town  was  called  to  arms,  the  guild  appeared  as  a 
separate  company  (Schaar),  armed  with  its  own  arms 
(or  its  own  guns,  lovingly  decorated  by  the  guild,  at  a 
subsequent  epoch),  under  its  own  self-elected  com- 
manders. It  was,  in  a  word,  as  independent  a  unit  of 
the  federation  as  the  republic  of  Uri  or  Geneva  was 
fifty  years  ago  in  the  Swiss  Confederation.  So  that, 

1  Adam  Smith  and  his  contemporaries  knew  well  what  they  were 
condemning  when  they  wrote  against  the  State  interference  in  trade 
and  the  trade  monopolies  of  State  creation.  Unhappily,  their  fol- 
lowers, with  their  hopeless  superficiality,  flung  mediaeval  guilds  and 
State  interference  into  the  same  sack,  making  no  distinction  between 
a  Versailles  edict  and  a  guild  ordinance.  It  hardly  need  be  said  that 
the  economists  who  have  seriously  studied  the  subject,  like  Schon- 
berg  (the  editor  of  the  well-known  course  of  Political  Economy),  never 
fell  into  such  an  error.  But,  till  lately,  diffuse  discussions  of  the 
above  type  went  on  for  economical  "science."  , 


198  MUTUAL   AID 

to  compare  it  with  a  modern  trade  union,  divested  of 
all  attributes  of  State  sovereignty,  and  reduced  to  a 
couple  of  functions  of  secondary  importance,  is  as 
unreasonable  as  to  compare  Florence  or  Brugge  with 
a  French  commune  vegetating  under  the  Code 
Napoldon,  or  with  a  Russian  town  placed  under 
Catherine  the  Second's  municipal  law.  Both  have 
elected  mayors,  and  the  latter  has  also  its  craft  cor- 
porations ;  but  the  difference  is — all  the  difference  that 
exists  between  Florence  and  Fontenay-les-Oies  or 
Tsarevokokshaisk,  or  between  a  Venetian  doge  and  a 
modern  mayor  who  lifts  his  hat  before  the  sous-pr£fe(s 
clerk. 

The  mediaeval  guilds  were  capable  of  maintaining 
their  independence  ;  and,  later  on,  especially  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  when,  in  consequence  of  several 
causes  which  shall  presently  be  indicated,  the  old 
municipal  life  underwent  a  deep  modification,  the 
younger  crafts  proved  strong  enough  to  conquer  their 
due  share  in  the  management  of  the  city  affairs.  The 
masses,  organized  in  "  minor  "  arts,  rose  to  wrest  the 
power  out  of  the  hands  of  a  growing  oligarchy,  and 
mostly  succeeded  in  this  task,  opening  again  a  new 
era  of  prosperity.  True,  that  in  some  cities  the  up- 
rising was  crushed  in  blood,  and  mass  decapitations  of 
workers  followed,  as  was  the  case  in  Paris  in  1 306,  and 
in  Cologne  in  1371.  In  such  cases  the  city's  liberties 
rapidly  fell  into  decay,  and  the  city  was  gradually 
subdued  by  the  central  authority.  But  the  majority 
of  the  towns  had  preserved  enough  of  vitality  to  come 
out  of  the  turmoil  with  a  new  life  and  vigour.1  A  new 

1  In  Florence  the  seven  minor  arts  made  their  revolution  in  1270- 
82,  and  its  results  are  fully  described  by  Perrens  (Jfistoire  de  Florence, 
Paris,  1877,  3  vols.),  and  especially  by  Gino  Capponi  (Storia  delta 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     199 

period  of  rejuvenescence  was  their  reward.  New  life 
was  infused,  and  it  found  its  expression  in  splendid 
architectural  monuments,  in  a  new  period  of  prosperity, 
in  a  sudden  progress  of  technics  and  invention,  and  in 
a  new  intellectual  movement  leading  to  the  Renaissance 
and  to  the  Reformation. 

The  life  of  a  mediaeval  city  was  a  succession  of  hard 
battles  to  conquer  liberty  and  to  maintain  it.  True, 
that  a  strong  and  tenacious  race  of  burghers  had 
developed  during  those  fierce  contests  ;  true,  that  love 
and  worship  of  the  mother  city  had  been  bred  by  these 
struggles,  and  that  the  grand  things  achieved  by  the 
mediaeval  communes  were  a  direct  outcome  of  that 
love.  But  the  sacrifices  which  the  communes  had  to 
sustain  in  the  battle  for  freedom  were,  nevertheless, 
cruel,  and  left  deep  traces  of  division  on  their  inner 
life  as  well.  Very  few  cities  had  succeeded,  under  a 
concurrence  of  favourable  circumstances,  in  obtaining 


repubblica  di  Firenze,  2da  edizione,  1876,  i.  58-80;  translated  into 
German).  In  Lyons,  on  the  contrary,  where  the  movement  of  the 
minor  crafts  took  place  in  1402,  the  latter  were  defeated  and  lost 
the  right  of  themselves  nominating  their  own  judges.  The  two  parties 
came  apparently  to  a  compromise.  In  Rostock  the  same  movement 
took  place  in  1313  ;  in  Zurich  in  1336;  in  Bern  in  1363  ;  in  Braun- 
schweig in  1374,  and  next  year  in  Hamburg  ;  in  Liibeck  in  1376-84; 
and  so  on.  See  Schmoller's  Strassburg  zur  Zeit  der  Zunftkampfe  and 
Strassburg's  Bliithe  ;  Brentano's  Arbeitergilden  der  Gegenwart,  2  vols., 
Leipzig,  1871-72  ;  Eb.  Bain's  Merchant  and  Craft  Guilds,  Aberdeen, 
1887,  pp.  26-47,  75>  etc-  As  to  Mr.  Gross's  opinion  relative  to  the 
same  struggles  in  England,  see  Mrs.  Green's  remarks  in  her  Town 
Life  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  ii.  190-217  ;  also  the  chapter  on  the 
Labour  Question,  and,  in  fact,  the  whole  of  this  extremely  interesting 
volume.  Brentano's  views  on  the  crafts'  struggles,  expressed  especially 
in  §§  iii.  and  iv.  of  his  essay  "  On  the  History  and  Development  of 
Guilds,"  in  Toulmin  Smith's  English  Guilds  remain  classical  for  the 
subject,  and  may  be  said  to  have  been  again  and  again  confirmed  by 
subsequent  research. 


200  MUTUAL  AID 

liberty  at  one  stroke,  and  these  few  mostly  lost  it 
equally  easily  ;  while  the  great  number  had  to  fight 
fifty  or  a  hundred  years  in  succession,  often  more, 
before  their  rights  to  free  life  had  been  recognized, 
and  another  hundred  years  to  found  their  liberty  on  a 
firm  basis — the  twelfth  century  charters  thus  being  but 
one  of  the  stepping-stones  to  freedom.1  In  reality,  the 
mediaeval  city  was  a  fortified  oasis  amidst  a  country 
plunged  into  feudal  submission,  and  it  had  to  make 
room  for  itself  by  the  force  of  its  arms.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  causes  briefly  alluded  to  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  each  village  community  had  gradually 
fallen  under  the  yoke  of  some  lay  or  clerical  lord.  His 
house  had  grown  to  be  a  castle,  and  his  brothers-in- 
arms were  now  the  scum  of  adventurers,  always  ready 
to  plunder  the  peasants.  In  addition  to  three  days  a 
week  which  the  peasants  had  to  work  for  the  lord, 
they  had  also  to  bear  all  sorts  of  exactions  for  the 
right  to  sow  and  to  crop,  to  be  gay  or  sad,  to  live, 
to  marry,  or  to  die.  And,  worst  of  all,  they  were 
continually  plundered  by  the  armed  robbers  of  some 
neighbouring  lord,  who  chose  to  consider  them  as  their 
master's  kin,  arid  to  take  upon  them,  and  upon  their 
cattle  and  crops,  the  revenge  for  a  feud  he  was  fighting 
against  their  owner.  Every  meadow,  every  field,  every 
river,  and  road  around  the  city,  and  every  man  upon 
the  land  was  under  some  lord. 

The  hatred  of  the  burghers  towards  the  feudal 
barons  has  found  a  most  characteristic  expression  in 

1  To  give  but  one  example — Cambrai  made  its  first  revolution  in 
907,  and,  after  three  or  four  more  revolts,  it  obtained  its  charter  in 
1076.  This  charter  was  repealed  twice  (1107  and  1138),  and  twice 
obtained  again  (in  1127  and  1180).  Total,  223  years  of  struggles 
before  conquering  the  right  to  independence.  Lyons — from  1195  to 
1320. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL   CITY     201 

the  wording  of  the  different  charters  which  they 
compelled  them  to  sign.  Heinrich  V.  is  made  to 
sign  in  the  charter  granted  to  Speier  in  mi, 
that  he  frees  the  burghers  from  "  the  horrible  and 
execrable  law  of  mortmain,  through  which  the 
town  has  been  sunk  into  deepest  poverty"  (von  dem 
scheusslichen  und  nichtswiirdigen  Gesetze,  welches 
gemein  Budel  genannt  wird,  Kallsen,  i.  307).  The 
coutume  of  Bayonne,  written  about  1273,  contains  such 
passages  as  these :  "  The  people  is  anterior  to  the 
lords.  It  is  the  people,  more  numerous  than  all 
others,  who,  desirous  of  peace,  has  made  the  lords 
for  bridling  and  knocking  down  the  powerful  ones," 
and  so  on  (Giry,  £tablissements  de  Rouen,  i.  117, 
quoted  by  Luchaire,  p.  24).  A  charter  submitted  for 
King  Robert's  signature  is  equally  characteristic.  He 
is  made  to  say  in  it :  "I  shall  rob  no  oxen  nor  other 
animals.  I  shall  seize  no  merchants,  nor  take  their 
moneys,  nor  impose  ransom.  From  Lady  Day  to  the 
All  Saints'  Day  I  shall  seize  no  horse,  nor  mare,  nor 
foals,  in  the  meadows.  I  shall  not  burn  the  mills,  nor 
rob  the  flour.  ...  I  shall  offer  no  protection  to  thieves," 
etc.  (Pfister  has  published  that  document,  reproduced 
by  Luchaire).  The  charter  "  granted  "  by  the  Besan^on 
Archbishop  Hugues,  in  which  he  has  been  compelled 
to  enumerate  all  the  mischiefs  due  to  his  mortmain 
rights,  is  equally  characteristic.1  And  so  on. 

Freedom  could  not  be  maintained  in  such  surround- 
ings, and  the  cities  were  compelled  to  carry  on  the  war 
outside  their  walls.  The  burghers  sent  out  emissaries 
to  lead  revolt  in  the  villages  ;  they  received  villages 

1  See  Tuetey,  "Etude  sur  le  droit  municipal  ...  en  Franche- 
Comte,"  in  Memoires  de  la  Societe  ^emulation  de  Montb'eliard,  2*  seVie, 
ii.  129  seq. 


202  MUTUAL   AID 

into  their  corporations,  and  they  waged  direct  war 
against  the  nobles.  It  Italy,  where  the  land  was 
thickly  sprinkled  with  feudal  castles,  the  war  assumed 
heroic  proportions,  and  was  fought  with  a  stern 
acrimony  on  both  sides.  Florence  sustained  for 
seventy-seven  years  a  succession  of  bloody  wars,  in 
order  to  free  its  contado  from  the  nobles  ;  but  when 
the  conquest  had  been  accomplished  (in  1181)  all  had 
to  begin  anew.  The  nobles  rallied  ;  they  constituted 
their  own  leagues  in  opposition  to  the  leagues  of  the 
towns,  and,  receiving  fresh  support  from  either  the 
Emperor  or  the  Pope,  they  made  the  war  last  for 
another  130  years.  The  same  took  place  in  Rome,  in 
Lombardy,  all  over  Italy. 

Prodigies  of  valour,  audacity,  and  tenaciousness 
were  displayed  by  the  citizens  in  these  wars.  But  the 
bows  and  the  hatchets  of  the  arts  and  crafts  had  not 
always  the  upper  hand  in  their  encounters  with  the 
armour-clad  knights,  and  many  castles  withstood  the 
ingenious  siege-machinery  and  the  perseverance  of  the 
citizens.  Some  cities,  like  Florence,  Bologna,  and 
many  towns  in  France,  Germany,  and  Bohemia,  suc- 
ceeded in  emancipating  the  surrounding  villages,  and 
they  were  rewarded  for  their  efforts  by  an  extraordinary 
prosperity  and  tranquillity.  But  even  here,  and  still 
more  in  the  less  strong  or  less  impulsive  towns,  the 
merchants  and  artisans,  exhausted  by  war.  and  mis- 
understanding their  own  interests,  bargained  over  the 
peasants'  heads.  They  compelled  the  lord  to  swear 
allegiance  to  the  city  ;  his  country  castle  was  dis- 
mantled, and  he  agreed  to  build  a  house  and  to 
reside  in  the  city,  of  which  he  became  a  co-burgher 
(corn-bourgeois,  con-cittadino)  ;  but  he  maintained  in 
return  most  of  his  rights  upon  the  peasants,  who  only 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL   CITY     203 

won  a  partial  relief  from  their  burdens.  The  burgher 
could  not  understand  that  equal  rights  of  citizenship 
might  be  granted  to  the  peasant  upon  whose  food 
supplies  he  had  to  rely,  and  a  deep  rent  was  traced 
between  town  and  village.  In  some  cases  the  peasants 
simply  changed  owners,  the  city  buying  out  the  barons' 
rights  and  selling  them  in  shares  to  her  own  citizens.1 
Serfdom  was  maintained,  and  only  much  later  on, 
towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  it  was  the 
craft  revolution  which  undertook  to  put  an  end  to  it, 
and  abolished  personal  servitude,  but  dispossessed  at 
the  same  time  the  serfs  of  the  land.2  It  hardly  need 
be  added  that  the  fatal  results  of  such  policy  were 
soon  felt  by  the  cities  themselves  ;  the  country  became 
the  city's  enemy. 

The  war  against  the  castles  had  another  bad  effect. 
It  involved  the  cities  in  a  long  succession  of  mutual 
wars,  which  have  given  origin  to  the  theory,  till 
lately  in  vogue,  namely,  that  the  towns  lost  their 
independence  through  their  own  jealousies  and  mutual 
fights.  The  imperialist  historians  have  especially 
supported  this  theory,  which,  however,  is  very  much 
undermined  now  by  modern  research.  It  is  certain 
that  in  Italy  cities  fought  each  other  with  a  stubborn 
animosity,  but  nowhere  else  did  such  contests  attain 
the  same  proportions  ;  and  in  Italy  itself  the  city  wars, 

1  This  seems  to  have  been  often  the  case  in  Italy.    In  Switzerland, 
Bern  bought  even  the  towns  of  Thun  and  Burgdorf. 

2  Such  was,  at.  least,  the  case  in  the  cities  of  Tuscany  (Florence, 
Lucca,  Sienna,  Bologna,  etc.),  for  which  the  relations  between  city 
and  peasants  are  best  known.     (Luchitzkiy,  "  Slavery  and  Russian 
Slaves  in  Florence,"  in  Kieff  University  Izvestia  for  1885,  who  has 
perused  Rumohr's  Ursprung der  Besitzlosigkeit  der  Colonien  in  Toscana, 
1830.)   The  whole  matter  concerning  the  relations  between  the  cities 
and  the  peasants  requires  much  more  study  than  has  hitherto  been 
done 


204  MUTUAL  AID 

especially  those  of  the  earlier  period,  had  their  special 
causes.  They  were  (as  was  already  shown  by  Sis- 
mondi  and  Ferrari)  a  mere  continuation  of  the  war 
against  the  castles — the  free  municipal  and  federative 
principle  unavoidably  entering  into  a  fierce  contest 
with  feudalism,  imperialism,  and  papacy.  Many  towns 
which  had  but  partially  shaken  off  the  yoke  of  the 
bishop,  the  lord,  or  the  Emperor,  were  simply  driven 
against  the  free  cities  by  the  nobles,  the  Emperor,  and 
Church,  whose  policy  was  to  divide  the  cities  and  to 
arm  them  against  each  other.  These  special  circum- 
stances (partly  reflected  on  to  Germany  also)  explain 
why  the  Italian  towns,  some  of  which  sought  support 
with  the  Emperor  to  combat  the  Pope,  while  the 
others  sought  support  from  the  Church  to  resist  the 
Emperor,  were  soon  divided  into  a  Gibelin  and  a 
Guelf  camp,  and  why  the  same  division  appeared  in 
each  separate  city.1 

The  immense  economical  progress  realized  by  most 
Italian  cities  just  at  the  time  when  these  wars  were 
hottest,2  and  the  alliances  so  easily  concluded  between 
towns,  still  better  characterize  those  struggles  and 
further  undermine  the  above  theory.  Already  in  the 
years  1130-1150  powerful  leagues  came  into  exist- 
ence ;  and  a  few  years  later,  when  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa  invaded  Italy  and,  supported  by  the  nobles  and 
some  retardatory  cities,  marched  against  Milan,  popular 
enthusiasm  was  roused  in  many  towns  by  popular 

1  Ferrari's  generalizations  are  often  too  theoretical  to  be  always 
correct ;  but  his  views  upon  the  part  played  by  the  nobles  in  the  city 
wars  are  based  upon  a  wide  range  of  authenticated  facts. 

2  Only  such  cities  as  stubbornly  kept  to  the  cause  of  the  barons, 
like  Pisa  or  Verona,  lost  through  the  wars.     For  many  towns  which 
fought  on  the  barons'  side,  the  defeat  was  also  the  beginning  of 
liberation  and  progress. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     205 

preachers.  Crema,  Piacenza,  Brescia,  Tortona,  etc., 
went  to  the  rescue  ;  the  banners  of  the  guilds  of  Verona, 
Padua,  Vicenza,  and  Trevisa  floated  side  by  side  in 
the  cities'  camp  against  the  banners  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  nobles.  Next  year  the  Lombardian  League 
came  into  existence,  and  sixty  years  later  we  see  it 
reinforced  by  many  other  cities,  and  forming  a  lasting 
organization  which  had  half  of  its  federal  war-chest  in 
Genoa  and  the  other  half  in  Venice.1  In  Tuscany, 
Florence  headed  another  powerful  league,  to  which 
Lucca,  Bologna,  Pistoia,  etc.,  belonged,  and  which 
played  an  important  part  in  crushing  down  the  nobles 
in  middle  Italy,  while  smaller  leagues  were  of  common 
occurrence.  It  is  thus  certain  that  although  petty 
jealousies  undoubtedly  existed,  and  discord  could  be 
easily  sown,  they  did  not  prevent  the  towns  from 
uniting  together  for  the  common  defence  of  liberty. 
Only  later  on,  when  separate  cities  became  little  States, 
wars  broke  out  between  them,  as  always  must  be  the 
case  when  States  struggle  for  supremacy  or  colonies. 

Similar  leagues  were  formed  in  "Germany  for  the 
same  purpose.  When,  under  the  successors  of  Conrad, 
the  land  was  the  prey  of  interminable  feuds  between 
the  nobles,  the  Westphalian  towns  concluded  a  league 
against  the  knights,  one  of  the  clauses  of  which  was 
never  to  lend  money  to  a  knight  who  would  continue 
to  conceal  stolen  goods.2  When  "  the  knights  and 
the  nobles  lived  on  plunder,  and  murdered  whom  they 
chose  to  murder,"  as  the  Wormser  Zorn  complains,  the 
cities  on  the  Rhine  (Mainz,  Cologne,  Speier,  Strasburg, 
and  Basel)  took  the  initiative  of  a  league  which  soon 

1  Ferrari,  ii.  18,  104  seq. ;  Leo  and  Botta,  i.  432. 

2  Job.  Falke,  Die  Hansa   ah  Deutsche  See-  und  Handelsmacht, 
Berlin,  1863,  pp.  31,  55. 


206  MUTUAL   AID 

numbered  sixty  allied  towns,  repressed  the  robbers, 
and  maintained  peace.  Later  on,  the  league  of  the 
towns  of  Suabia,  divided  into  three  "  peace  districts  " 
(Augsburg,  Constance,  and  Ulm),  had  the  same  pur- 
pose. And  even  when  such  leagues  were  broken,1 
they  lived  long  enough  to  show  that  while  the  supposed 
peacemakers — the  kings,  the  emperors,  and  the  Church 
— fomented  discord,  and  were  themselves  helpless 
against  the  robber  knights,  it  was  from  the  cities  that 
the  impulse  came  for  re-establishing  peace  and  union. 
The  cities — not  the  emperors — were  the  real  makers 
of  the  national  unity.2 

Similar  federations  were  organized  for  the  same 
purpose  among  small  villages,  and  now  that  attention 
has  been  drawn  to  this  subject  by  Luchaire  we  may 
expect  soon  to  learn  much  more  about  them.  Villages 
joined  into  small  federations  in  the  contado  of  Florence, 
so  also  in  the  dependencies  of  Novgorod  and  Pskov. 
As  to  France,  there  is  positive  evidence  of  a  federation 
of  seventeen  peasant  villages  which  has  existed  in  the 
Laonnais  for  nearly  a  hundred  years  (till  1256),  and 
has  fought  hard  for  its  independence.  Three  more 
peasant  republics,  which  had  sworn  charters  similar  to 
those  of  Laon  and  Soissons,  existed  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Laon,  and,  their  territories  being  contiguous, 
they  supported  each  other  .in  their  liberation  wars. 
Altogether,  Luchaire  is  of  the  opinion  that  many  such 
federations  must  have  come  into  existence  in  France 
in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  but  that  docu- 
ments relative  to  them  are  mostly  lost.  Of  course, 

1  For  Aachen  and  Cologne   we  have   direct  testimony  that  the 
bishops  of  these  two  cities — one  of  them  bought  by  the  enemy — 
opened  to  him  the  gates. 

2  See  the  facts,  though  not  always  the  conclusions,  of  Nitzsch,  iii. 
133  sef-  ;  also  Kallsen,  i.  458,  etc. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     207 

being  unprotected  by  walls,  they  could  easily  be  crushed 
down  by  the  kings  and  the  lords ;  but  in  certain 
favourable  circumstances,  when  they  found  support  in 
a  league  of  towns  and  protection  in  their  mountains, 
such  peasant  republics  became  independent  units  of  the 
Swiss  Confederation.1 

As  to  unions  between  cities  for  peaceful  purposes, 
they  were  of  quite  common  occurrence.  The  inter- 
course which  had  been  established  during  the  period  of 
liberation  was  not  interrupted  afterwards.  Sometimes, 
when  the  scabini  of  a  German  town,  having  to  pronounce 
judgment  in  a  new  or  complicated  case,  declared  that 
they  knew  not  the  sentence  (des  Urtheiles  nicht  weise 
zu  sem),  they  sent  delegates  to  another  city  to  get  the 
sentence.  The  same  happened  also  in  France;2  while 
Forli  and  Ravenna  are  known  to  have  mutually 
naturalized  their  citizens  and  granted  them  full  rights 
in  both  cities.  To  submit  a  contest  arisen  between 
two  towns,  or  within  a  city,  to  another  commune  which 
was  invited  to  act  as  arbiter,  was  also  in  the  spirit  of 
the  times.3  As  to  commercial  treaties  between  cities, 
they  were  quite  habitual.4  Unions  for  regulating  the 
production  and  the  sizes  of  casks  which  were  used  for 

1  On   the   Commune  of  the  Laonnais,  which,  until  Melleville's 
researches  (Histoire  de  la  Commune  du  Laonnais,  Paris,  1853),  was 
confounded  with  the  Commune  of  Laon,  see  Luchaire,  pp.  75  seq. 
For  the  early  peasants'  guilds  and  subsequent  unions  see  R.  Wilman's 
"  Die  landlichen  Schutzgilden  Westphaliens,"  in  Zeitschrift  fur  Kul- 
turgeschichte,    neue    Folge,    Bd.    ill,   quoted  in    Henne-am-Rhyn's 
Kulturgeschichte,  Hi.  249. 

2  Luchaire,  p.  149. 

8  Two  important  cities,  like  Mainz  and  Worms,  would  settle  a 
political  contest  by  means  of  arbitration.  After  a  civil  war  broken 
out  in  Abbeville,  Amiens  would  act,  in  1231,  as  arbiter  (Luchaire, 
149) ;  and  so  on. 

4  See,  for  instance,  W.  Stieda,  Hansische  Vereinbarungen,  Lc.t 
p.  114. 


208  MUTUAL  AID 

the  commerce  in  wine,  "  herring  unions,"  and  so  on, 
were  mere  precursors  of  the  great  commercial  federa- 
tions of  the  Flemish  Hansa,  and,  later  on,  of  the  great 
North  German  Hansa,  the  history  of  which  alone 
might  contribute  pages  and  pages  to  illustrate  the 
federation  spirit  which  permeated  men  at  that  time. 
It  hardly  need  be  added,  that  through  the  Hanseatic 
unions  the  mediaeval  cities  have  contributed  more  to 
the  development  of  international  intercourse,  naviga- 
tion, and  maritime  discovery  than  all  the  States  of  the 
first  seventeen  centuries  of  our  era. 

In  a  word,  federations  between  small  territorial  units, 
as  well  as  among  men  united  by  common  pursuits 
within  their  respective  guilds,  and  federations  between 
cities  and  groups  of  cities  constituted  the  very  essence 
of  life  and  thought  during  that  period.  The  first  five 
of  the  second  decade  of  centuries  of  our  era  may  thus 
be  described  as  an  immense  attempt  at  securing  mutual 
aid  and  support  on  a  grand  scale,  by  means  of  the 
principles  of  federation  and  association  carried  on 
through  all  manifestations  of  human  life  and  to  all 
possible  degrees.  This  attempt  was  attended  with 
success  to  a  very  great  extent.  It  united  men  formerly 
divided  ;  it  secured  them  a  very  great  deal  of  freedom, 
and  it  tenfolded  their  forces.  At  a  time  when  particu- 
larism was  bred  by  so  many  agencies,  and  the  causes 
of  discord  and  jealousy  might  have  been  so  numerous, 
it  is  gratifying  to  see  that  cities  scattered  over  a  wide 
continent  had  so  much  in  common,  and  were  so  ready 
to  confederate  for  the  prosecution  of  so  many  common 
aims.  They  succumbed  in  the  long  run  before  power- 
ful enemies;  not  having  understood  the  mutual-aid 
principle  widely  enough,  they  themselves  committed 
fatal  faults  ;  but  they  did  not  perish  through  their  own 


MUTUAL  AID    IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL  CITY     209 

jealousies,  and  their  errors  were  not  a  want  of  federa- 
tion spirit  among  themselves. 

The  results  of  that  new  move  which  mankind  made 
in  the  mediaeval  city  were  immense.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  eleventh  century  the  towns  of  Europe  were 
small  clusters  of  miserable  huts,  adorned  but  with  low 
clumsy  churches,  the  builders  of  which  hardly  knew 
how  to  make  an  arch  ;  the  arts,  mostly  consisting  of 
some  weaving  and  forging,  were  in  their  infancy ; 
learning  was  found  in  but  a  few  monasteries.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  the  very  face  of  Europe 
had  been  changed.  The  land  was  dotted  with  rich 
cities,  surrounded  by  immense  thick  walls  which  were 
embellished  by  towers  and  gates,  each  of  them  a  work 
of  art  in  itself.  The  cathedrals,  conceived  in  a  grand 
style  and  profusely  decorated,  lifted  their  bell-towers 
to  the  skies,  displaying  a  purity  of  form  and  a  boldness 
of  imagination  which  we  now  vainly  strive  to  attain. 
The  crafts  and  arts  had  risen  to  a  degree  of  perfection 
which  we  can  hardly  boast  of  having  superseded  in 
many  directions,  if  the  inventive  skill  of  the  worker 
and  the  superior  finish  of  his  work  be  appreciated 
higher  than  rapidity  of  fabrication.  The  navies  of  the 
free  cities  furrowed  in  all  directions  the  Northern  and 
the  Southern  Mediterranean ;  one  effort  more,  and 
they  would  cross  the  oceans.  Over  large  tracts  of 
land  well-being  had  taken  the  place  of  misery ; 
learning  had  grown  and  spread.  The  methods  of 
science  had  been  elaborated ;  the  basis  of  natural 
philosophy  had  been  laid  down  ;  and  the  way  had  been 
paved  for  all  the  mechanical  inventions  of  which  our 
own  times  are  so  proud.  Such  were  the  magic 
changes  accomplished  in  Europe  in  less  than  four 


210  MUTUAL  AID 

hundred  years.  And  the  losses  which  Europe  sustained 
through  the  loss  of  its  free  cities  can  only  be  under- 
stood when  we  compare  the  seventeenth  century  with 
the  fourteenth  or  the  thirteenth.  The  prosperity 
which  formerly  characterized  Scotland,  Germany,  the 
plains  of  Italy,  was  gone.  The  roads  had  fallen  into 
an  abject  state,  the  cities  were  depopulated,  labour  was 
brought  into  slavery,  art  had  vanished,  commerce  itself 
was  decaying.1 

If  the  mediaeval  cities  had  bequeathed  to  us  no 
written  documents  to  testify  of  their  splendour,  and 
left  nothing  behind  but  the  monuments  of  building  art 
which  we  see  now  all  over  Europe,  from  Scotland  to 
Italy,  and  from  Gerona  in  Spain  to  Breslau  in  Slavo- 
nian territory,  we  might  yet  conclude  that  the  times 
of  independent  city  life  were  times  of  the  greatest 
development  of  human  intellect  during  the  Christian 
era  down  to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  On 
looking,  for  instance,  at  a  mediaeval  picture  represent- 
ing Nuremberg  with  its  scores  of  towers  and  lofty 
spires,  each  of  which  bore  the  stamp  of  free  creative 
art,  we  can  hardly  conceive  that  three  hundred  years 
before  the  town  was  but  a  collection  of  miserable 
hovels.  And  our  admiration  grows  when  we  go  into 
the  details  of  the  architecture  and  decorations  of  each 
of  the  countless  churches,  bell-towers,  gates,  and  com- 
munal houses  which  are  scattered  all  over  Europe  as 
far  east  as  Bohemia  and  the  now  dead  towns  of  Polish 
Galicia.  Not  only  Italy,  that  mother  of  art,  but  all 

1  Cosmo  Innes's  Early  Scottish  History  and  Scotland  in  Middle 
Ages,  quoted  by  Rev.  Denton,  /.  c.,  pp.  68,  69 ;  Lamprecht's  Deutsches 
wirthschaftliche  Leben  im  Mittelalter,  review  by  Schmoller  in  his 
Jahrbuch,  Bd.  xii. ;  Sismondi's  Tableau  de  Fagriculture  toscane,  pp. 
226  seq.  The  dominions  of  Florence  could  be  recognized  at  a 
glance  through  their  prosperity. 


Europe  is  full  of  such  monuments.  The  very  fact 
that  of  all  arts  architecture — a  social  art  above  all — 
had  attained  the  highest  development,  is  significant  in 
itself.  To  be  what  it  was,  it  must  have  originated 
from  an  eminently  social  life. 

Mediaeval  architecture  attained  its  grandeur — not 
only  because  it  was  a  natural  development  of  handi- 
craft ;  not  only  because  each  building,  each  architectural 
decoration,  had  been  devised  by  men  who  knew 
through  the  experience  of  their  own  hands  what 
artistic  effects  can  be  obtained  from  stone,  iron,  bronze, 
or  even  from  simple  logs  and  mortar  ;  not  only  because 
each  monument  was  a  result  of  collective  experience, 
accumulated  in  each  "mystery"  or  craft1 — it  was 
grand  because  it  was  born  out  of  a  grand  idea.  Like 
Greek  art,  it  sprang  out  of  a  conception  of  brother- 
hood and  unity  fostered  by  the  city.  It  had  an 
audacity  which  could  only  be  won  by  audacious 
struggles  and  victories ;  it  had  that  expression  of 
vigour,  because  vigour  permeated  all  the  life  of  the 
city.  A  cathedral  or  a  communal  house  symbolized 
the  grandeur  of  an  organism  of  which  every  mason 
and  stone-cutter  was  the  builder,  and  a  mediaeval 
building  appears — not  as  a  solitary  effort  to  which 

1  Mr.  John  J.  Ennett  (Six  £ssays,  London,  1891)  has  excellent 
pages  on  this  aspect  of  mediaeval  architecture.  Mr.  Willis,  in  his 
appendix  to  Whewell's  History  of  Inductive  Sciences  (i.  261-262),  has 
pointed  out  the  beauty  of  the  mechanical  relations  in  mediaeval 
buildings.  "  A  new  decorative  construction  was  matured,"  he  writes, 
"  not  thwarting  and  controlling,  but  assisting  and  harmonizing  with 
the  mechanical  construction.  Every  member,  every  moulding, 
becomes  a  sustainer  of  weight;  and  by  the  multiplicity  of  props 
assisting  each  other,  and  the  consequent  subdivision  of  weight,  the 
eye  was  satisfied  of  the  stability  of  the  structure,  notwithstanding 
curiously  slender  aspects  of  the  separate  parts."  An  art  which 
sprang  out  of  the  social  life  of  the  city  could  not  be  better  character- 
ized. 


212  MUTUAL  AID 

thousands  of  slaves  would  have  contributed  the  share 
assigned  them  by  one  man's  imagination ;  all  the  city 
contributed  to  it.  The  lofty  bell-tower  rose  upon  a 
structure,  grand  in  itself,  in  which  the  life  of  the  city 
was  throbbing — not  upon  a  meaningless  scaffold  like 
the  Paris  iron  tower,  not  as  a  sham  structure  in  stone 
intended  to  conceal  the  ugliness  of  an  iron  frame,  as 
has  been  done  in  the  Tower  Bridge.  Like  the  Acro- 
polis of  Athens,  the  cathedral  of  a  mediaeval  city  was 
intended  to  glorify  the  grandeur  of  the  victorious  city, 
to  symbolize  the  union  of  its  crafts,  to  express  the 
glory  of  each  citizen  in  a  city  of  his  own  creation. 
After  having  achieved  its  craft  revolution,  the  city 
often  began  a  new  cathedral  in  order  to  express  the 
new,  wider,  and  broader  union  which  had  been  called 
into  life. 

The  means  at  hand  for  these  grand  undertakings 
were  disproportionately  small.  Cologne  Cathedral 
was  begun  with  a  yearly  outlay  of  but  500  marks  ;  a 
gift  of  100  marks  was  inscribed  as  a  grand  donation  j1 
and  even  when  the  work  approached  completion,  and 
gifts  poured  in  in  proportion,  the  yearly  outlay  in 
money  stood  at  about  5,000  marks,  and  never 
exceeded  14,000.  The  cathedral  of  Basel  was  built 
with  equally  small  means.  But  each  corporation  con- 
tributed its  part  of  stone,  work,  and  decorative  genius 
to  their  common  monument.  Each  guild  expressed  in 
it  its  political  conceptions,  telling  in  stone  or  in  bronze 
the  history  of  the  city,  glorifying  the  principles  of 
"  Liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity," 2  praising  the 
city's  allies,  and  sending  to  eternal  fire  its  enemies. 

1  Dr.   L.    Ennen,    Der  Dom   zu    Koln>    seine    Construction   und 
Anstaltung,  Koln,   1871. 

2  The  three  statues  are  among  the  outer  decorations  of  Notre 
Dame  de  Paris. 


MUTUAL  AID    IN   THE   MEDIEVAL  CITY     213 

And  each  guild  bestowed  its  love  upon  the  communal 
monument  by  richly  decorating  it  with  stained  win- 
dows, paintings,  "  gates,  worthy  to  be  the  gates  of 
Paradise,"  as  Michel  Angelo  said,  or  stone  decorations 
of  each  minutest  corner  of  the  building.1  Small 
cities,  even  small  parishes,2  vied  with  the  big  agglo- 
merations in  this  work,  and  the  cathedrals  of  Laon 
and  St.  Ouen  hardly  stand  behind  that  of  Rheims,  or 
the  Communal  House  of  Bremen,  or  the  folkmote's 
bell-tower  of  Breslau.  "  No  works  must  be  begun  by 
the  commune  but  such  as  are  conceived  in  response 
to  the  grand  heart  of  the  commune,  composed  of  the 
hearts  of  all  citizens,  united  in  one  common  will " — 
such  were  the  words  of  the  Council  of  Florence  ;  and 
this  spirit  appears  in  all  communal  works  of  common 
utility,  such  as  the  canals,  terraces,  vineyards,  and 
fruit  gardens  around  Florence,  or  the  irrigation  canals 
which  intersected  the  plains  of  Lombardy,  or  the  port 
and  aqueduct  of  Genoa,  or,  in  fact,  any  works  of  the 
kind  which  were  achieved  by  almost  every  city.3 

All  arts  had  progressed  in  the  same  way  in  the 
mediaeval  cities,  those  of  our  own  days  mostly  being  but 
a  continuation  of  what  had  grown  at  that  time.  The 
prosperity  of  the  Flemish  cities  was  based  upon  the 
fine  woollen  cloth  they  fabricated.  Florence,  at  the 

1  Mediaeval  art,  like   Greek  art,  did  not  know  those   curiosity- 
shops  which  we  call  a  National  Gallery  or  a  Museum.     A  picture 
was  painted,  a  statue  was  carved,  a  bronze  decoration  was  cast  to 
stand  in  its  proper  place  in  a  monument  of  communal  art.     It  lived 
there,  it  was  part  of  a  whole,  and  it  contributed  to  give  unity  to  the 
impression  produced  by  the  whole. 

2  Cf.  J.  T.  Ennett's  "  Second  Essay,"  p.  36. 

3  Sismondi,  iv.  172;  xvi.  356.     The  great  canal,  Naviglio  Grande, 
which  brings  the  water  from  the  Tessino,  was  begun  in  1179,  i.e. 
after  the  conquest  of  independence,  and  it  was  ended  in  the  thirteenth 
century.     On  the  subsequent  decay,  see  xvi.  355. 


214  MUTUAL   AID 

beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  before  the  black 
death,  fabricated  from  70,000  to  100,000  panni  of 
woollen  stuffs,  which  were  valued  at  1,200,000  golden 
florins.1  The  chiselling  of  precious  metals,  the  art  of 
casting,  the  fine  forging  of  iron,  were  creations  of  the 
mediaeval  "mysteries"  which  had  succeeded  in  attain- 
ing in  their  own  domains  all  that  could  be  made 
by  the  hand,  without  the  use  of  a  powerful  prime 
motor.  By  the  hand  and  by  invention,  because,  to  use 
Whewell's  words : 

"  Parchment  and  paper,  printing  and  engraving,  improved 
glass  and  steel,  gunpowder,  clocks,  telescopes,  the  mariner's 
compass,  the  reformed  calendar,  the  decimal  notation  ;  alge- 
bra, trigonometry,  chemistry,  counterpoint  (an  invention 
equivalent  to  a  new  creation  of  music)  ;  these  are  all  posses- 
sions which  we  inherit  from  that  which  has  so  disparagingly 
been  termed  the  Stationary  Period "  (History  of  Inductive 
Sciences,  \.  252). 

True  that  no  new  principle  was  illustrated  by  any 
of  these  discoveries,  as  Whewell  said  ;  but  mediaeval 
science  had  done  something  more  than  the  actual 
discovery  of  new  principles.  It  had  prepared  the 
discovery  of  all  the  new  principles  which  we  know 
at  the  present  time  in  mechanical  sciences :  it  had 
accustomed  the  explorer  to  observe  facts  and  to  reason 
from  them.  It  was  inductive  science,  even  though  it 
had  not  yet  fully  grasped  the  importance  and  the 
powers  of  induction  ;  and  it  laid  the  foundations  of 

1  In  1336  it  had  8,000  to  10,000  boys  and  girls  in  its  primary 
schools,  1,000  to  1,200  boys  in  its  seven  middle  schools,  and  from 
550  to  600  students  in  its  four  universities.  The  thirty  communal 
hospitals  contained  over  1,000  beds  for  a  population  of  90,000 
inhabitants  (Capponi,  ii.  249  seq^).  It  has  more  than  once  been 
suggested  by  authoritative  writers  that  education  stood,  as  a  rule,  at 
a  much  higher  level  than  is  generally  supposed.  Certainly  so  in 
democratic  Nuremberg. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     215 

both  mechanics  and  natural  philosophy.  Francis 
Bacon,  Galileo,  and  Copernicus  were  the  direct 
descendants  of  a  Roger  Bacon  and  a  Michael  Scot,  as 
the  steam  engine  was  a  direct  product  of  the  researches 
carried  on  in  the  Italian  universities  on  the  weight  of 
the  atmosphere,  and  of  the  mathematical  and  technical 
learning  which  characterized  Nuremberg. 

But  why  should  one  take  trouble  to  insist  upon  the 
advance  of  science  and  art  in  the  mediaeval  city  ?  Is 
it  not  enough  to  point  to  the  cathedrals  in  the  domain 
of  skill,  and  to  the  Italian  language  and  the  poem  of 
Dante  in  the  domain  of  thought,  to  give  at  once  the 
measure  of  what  the  mediaeval  city  created  during  the 
four  centuries  it  lived  ? 

The  mediaeval  cities  have  undoubtedly  rendered  an 
immense  service  to  European  civilization.  They  have 
prevented  it  from  being  drifted  into  the  theocracies 
and  despotical  states  of  old  ;  they  have  endowed  it 
with  the  variety,  the  self-reliance,  the  force  of  initia- 
tive, and  the  immense  intellectual  and  material  energies 
it  now  possesses,  which  are  the  best  pledge  for  its 
being  able  to  resist  any  new  invasion  of  the  East. 
But  why  did  these  centres  of  civilization,  which 
attempted  to  answer  to  deeply-seated  needs  of  human 
nature,  and  were  so  full  of  life,  not  live  further  on  ? 
Why  were  they  seized  with  senile  debility  in  the 
sixteenth  century  ?  and,  after  having  repulsed  so  many 
assaults  from  without,  and  only  borrowed  new  vigour 
from  their  interior  struggles,  why  did  they  finally 
succumb  to  both  ? 

Various  causes  contributed  to  this  effect,  some  of 
them  having  their  roots  in  the  remote  past,  while 
others  originated  in  the  mistakes  committed  by  the 


216  MUTUAL  AID 

cities  themselves.  Towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  mighty  States,  reconstructed  on  the  old 
Roman  pattern,  were  already  coming  into  existence. 
In  each  country  and  each  region  some  feudal  lord, 
more  cunning,  more  given  to  hoarding,  and  often  less 
scrupulous  than  his  neighbours,  had  succeeded  in 
appropriating  to  himself  richer  personal  domains, 
more  peasants  on  his  lands,  more  knights  in  his 
following,  more  treasures  in  his  chest.  He  had 
chosen  for  his  seat  a  group  of  happily-situated  villages, 
not  yet  trained  into  free  municipal  life — Paris,  Madrid, 
or  Moscow — and  with  the  labour  of  his  serfs  he  had 
made  of  them  royal  fortified  cities,  whereto  he 
attracted  war  companions  by  a  free  distribution  of 
villages,  and  merchants  by  the  protection  he  offered  to 
trade.  The  germ  of  a  future  State,  which  began 
gradually  to  absorb  other  similar  centres,  was  thus 
laid.  Lawyers,  versed  in  the  study  of  Roman  law, 
flocked  into  such  centres  ;  a  tenacious  and  ambitious 
race  of  men  issued  from  among  the  burgesses,  who 
equally  hated  the  naughtiness  of  the  lords  and  what 
they  called  the  lawlessness  of  the  peasants.  The  very 
forms  of  the  village  community,  unknown  to  their 
code,  the  very  principles  of  federalism  were  repulsive 
to  them  as  "  barbarian "  inheritances.  Csesarism, 
supported  by  the  fiction  of  popular  consent  and  by  the 
force  of  arms,  was  their  ideal,  and  they  worked  hard 
for  those  who  promised  to  realize  it.1 

1  Cf.  L.  Ranke's  excellent  considerations  upon  the  essence  of 
Roman  law  in  his  Weltgeschichte^  Bd.  iv.  Abth.  2,  pp.  20-31.  Also 
Sismondi's  remarks  upon  the  part  played  by  the  legistes  in  the  con- 
stitution of  royal  authority,  Histoire  des  franfais,  Paris,  1826,  viii. 
85-99.  The  popular  hatred  against  these  "  weise  Doktoren  und 
£eutelschneider  des  Volks  "  broke  out  with  full  force  in  the  first  years 
of  the  sixteenth  century  in  the  sermons  of  the  early  Reform  move- 
ment. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     217 

The  Christian  Church,  once  a  rebel  against  Roman 
law  and   now  its  ally,  worked   in  the  same  direction. 
The  attempt  at  constituting  the  theocratic  Empire  of 
Europe  having  proved  a  failure,  the  more  intelligent 
and  ambitious  bishops  now  yielded  support  to  those 
whom    they    reckoned    upon    for    reconstituting    the 
power  of  the  Kings  of  Israel  or  of  the  Emperors  of 
Constantinople.     The     Church    bestowed    upon    the 
rising  rulers  her  sanctity,  she  crowned  them  as  God's 
representatives  on  earth,  she  brought  to  their  service 
the  learning  and  the  statesmanship  of  her  ministers, 
her  blessings  and  maledictions,   her    riches,  and  the 
sympathies  she  had  retained  among  the  poor.     The 
peasants,  whom  the  cities  had  failed  or  refused  to  free, 
on  seeing  the  burghers  impotent  to  put  an  end  to  the 
interminable   wars  between   the  knights — which  wars 
they  had  so  dearly  to  pay  for — now  set  their  hopes 
upon  the   King,  the  Emperor,  or  the  Great  Prince  ; 
and  while  aiding  them    to  crush    down    the    mighty 
feudal  owners,  they  aided  them  to  constitute  the  cen- 
tralized   State.     And    finally,    the    invasions    of    the 
Mongols  and  the  Turks,    the  holy   war   against  the 
Maures  in  Spain,  as  well   as  the  terrible  wars  which 
soon   broke    out    between   the    growing    centres    of 
sovereignty — He  de  France  and  Burgundy,  Scotland 
and   England,    England   and    France,    Lithuania  and 
Poland,   Moscow  and  Tver,   and  so  on — contributed 
to  the  same  end.     Mighty  States  made  their  appear- 
ance ;  and  the  cities  had  now  to  resist  not  only  loose 
federations    of  lords,   but  strongly-organized  centres, 
which  had  armies  of  serfs  at  their  disposal. 

The  worst  was,  that  the  growing  autocracies  found 
support  in  the  divisions  which  had  grown  within 
the  cities  themselves.  The  fundamental  idea  of  the 


218  MUTUAL  AID 

mediaeval  city  was  grand,  but  it  was  not  wide  enough. 
Mutual  aid  and  support  cannot  be  limited  to  a  small 
association  ;  they  must  spread  to  its  surroundings,  or 
else  the  surroundings  will  absorb  the  association.  And 
in  this  respect  the  mediaeval  citizen  had  committed  a 
formidable  mistake  at  the  outset.  Instead  of  looking 
upon  the  peasants  and  artisans  who  gathered  under 
the  protection  of  his  walls  as  upon  so  many  aids  who 
would  contribute  their  part  to  the  making  of  the 
city — as  they  really  did — a  sharp  division  was  traced 
between  the  "  families  "  of  old  burghers  and  the  new- 
comers. For  the  former,  all  benefits  from  communal 
trade  and  communal  lands  were  reserved,  and  nothing 
was  left  for  the  latter  but  the  right  of  freely  using  the 
skill  of  their  own  hands.  The  city  thus  became  divided 
into  "the  burghers"  or  "the  commonalty,"  and  "the 
inhabitants."1  The  trade,  which  was  formerly  com- 
munal, now  became  the  privilege  of  the  merchant  and 
artisan  "families,"  and  the  next  step — that  of  becoming 
individual,  or  the  privilege  of  oppressive  trusts — was 
unavoidable. 

The  same  division  took  place  between  the  city 
proper  and  the  surrounding  villages.  The  commune 
had  well  tried  to  free  the  peasants,  but  her  wars 
against  the  lords  became,  as  already  mentioned,  wars 
for  freeing  the  city  itself  from  the  lords,  rather  than 
for  freeing  the  peasants.  She  left  to  the  lord  his 
rights  over  the  villeins,  on  condition  that  he,  would 
molest  the  city  no  more  and  would  become  co-burgher. 
But  the  nobles  "adopted"  by  the  city,  and  now  residing 

1  Brentanc  fully  understood  the  fatal  effects  of  the  struggle  between 
the  "  old  burghers  "  and  the  new-comers.  Miaskowski,  in  his  work 
on  the  village  communities  of  Switzerland,  has  indicated  the  same  for 
village  communities. 


MUTUAL   AID   IN   THE   MEDIAEVAL   CITY     219 

within  its  walls,  simply  carried  on  the  old  war  within 
the  very  precincts  of  the  city.  They  disliked  to  sub- 
mit to  a  tribunal  of  simple  artisans  and  merchants, 
and  fought  their  old  feuds  in  the  streets.  Each  city 
had  now  its  Colonnas  and  Orsinis,  its  Overstolzes  and 
Wises.  Drawing  large  incomes  from  the  estates  they 
had  still  retained,  they  surrounded  themselves  with 
numerous  clients  and  feudalized  the  customs  and  habits 
of  the  city  itself.  And  when  discontent  began  to  be 
felt  in  the  artisan  classes  of  the  town,  they  offered 
their  sword  and  their  followers  to  settle  the  differences 
by  a  free  fight,  instead  of  letting  the  discontent  find 
out  the  channels  which  it  did  not  fail  to  secure  itself 
in  olden  times. 

The  greatest  and  the  most  fatal  error  of  most  cities 
was  to  base  their  wealth  upon  commerce  and  industry, 
to  the  neglect  of  agriculture.  They  thus  repeated  the 
error  which  had  once  been  committed  by  the  cities 
of  antique  Greece,  and  they  fell  through  it  into  the 
same  crimes.1  The  estrangement  of  so  many  cities 
from  the  land  necessarily  drew  them  into  a  policy 
hostile  to  the  land,  which  became  more  and  more 
evident  in  the  times  of  Edward  the  Third,2  the  French 
Jacqueries,  the  Hussite  wars,  and  the  Peasant  War  in 
Germany.  On  the  other  hand,  a  commercial  policy 
involved  them  in  distant  enterprises.  Colonies  were 
founded  by  the  Italians  in  the  south-east,  by  German 

1  The  trade  in  slaves  kidnapped  in  the  East  was  never  discon- 
tinued in  the  Italian  republics  till  the  fifteenth  century.     Feeble 
traces  of  it  are  found  also  in  Germany  and  elsewhere.    See  Cibrario. 
Delia   schiavitii  e  del  semaggio,    2    vols.    Milan,    1868;    Professor 
Luchitzkiy,  "  Slavery  and  Russian  Slaves  in  Florence  in  the  Four- 
teenth and  Fifteenth  Centuries,"  in  Izvestia  of  the  Kieff  University, 
1885. 

2  J.  R.  Green's  History  of  the  English  People,  London,  1878,  i.  455. 


220  MUTUAL   AID 

cities  in  the  east,  by  Slavonian  cities  in  the  far  north- 
east. Mercenary  armies  began  to  be  kept  for  colonial 
wars,  and  soon  for  local  defence  as  well.  Loans  were 
contracted  to  such  an  extent  as  to  totally  demoralize 
the  citizens ;  and  internal  contests  grew  worse  and 
worse  at  each  election,  during  which  the  colonial 
politics  in  the  interest  of  a  few  families  was  at  stake. 

('The  division  into  rich  and  poor  grew  deeper,  and  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  in  each  city,  the  royal  authority 

( found  ready  allies  and  support  among  the  poor. 

And  there  is  yet  another  cause  of  the  decay  of  com- 
munal institutions,  which  stands  higher  and  lies  deeper 
than  all  the  above.  The  history  of  the  mediaeval  cities 
offers  one  of  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  the  power 
of  ideas  and  principles  upon  the  destinies  of  mankind, 
and  of  the  quite  opposed  results  which  are  obtained 
when  a  deep  modification  of  leading  ideas  has  taken 
place.  Self-reliance  and  federalism,  the  sovereignty 
of  each  group,  and  the  construction  of  the  political 
body  from  the  simple  to  the  composite,  were  the  lead- 
ing ideas  in  the  eleventh  century.  But  since  that  time 
the  conceptions  had  entirely  changed.  The  students 
of  Roman  law  and  the  prelates  of  the  Church,  closely 
bound  together  since  the  time  of  Innocent  the  Third, 
had  succeeded  in  paralyzing  the  idea — the  antique 
Greek  idea — which  presided  at  the  foundation  of  the 
cities.  For  two  or  three  hundred  years  they  taught 
from  the  pulpit,  the  University  chair,  and  the  judges' 
bench,  that  salvation  must  be  sought  for  in  a  strongly- 
centralized  State,  placed  under  a  semi-divine  authority;1 
that  one  man  can  and  must  be  the  saviour  of  society, 
and  that  in  the  name  of  public  salvation  he  can  com- 

1  See  the  theories  expressed  by  the  Bologna  lawyers,  already  at 
the  Congress  of  Roncaglia  in  1158. 


MUTUAL  AID   IN   THE   MEDIEVAL   CITY     221 

mit  any  violence :  burn  men  and  women  at  the  stake, 
make  them  perish  under  indescribable  tortures,  plunge 
whole  provinces  into  the  most  abject  misery.  Nor  did 
they  fail  to  give  object  lessons  to  this  effect  on  a 
grand  scale,  and  with  an  unheard-of  cruelty,  wherever 
the  king's  sword  and  the  Church's  fire,  or  both  at 
once,  could  reach.  By  these  teachings  and  examples, 
continually  repeated  and  enforced  upon  public  atten- 
tion, the  very  minds  of  the  citizens  had  been  shaped 
into  a  new  mould.  They  began  to  find  no  authority 
too  extensive,  no  killing  by  degrees  too  cruel,  once  it 
was  "  for  public  safety."  And,  with  this  new  direction 
of  mind  and  this  new  belief  in  one  man's  power,  the 
old  federalist  principle  faded  away,  and  the  very 
creative  genius  of  the  masses  died  out  The  Roman 
idea  was  victorious,  and  in  such  circumstances  the 
centralized  State  had  in  the  cities  a  ready  prey. 

Florence  in  the  fifteenth  century  is  typical  of  this 
change.  Formerly  a  popular  revolution  was  the  signal 
of  a  new  departure.  Now,  when  the  people,  brought 
to  despair,  insurged,  it  had  constructive  ideas  no 
more ;  no  fresh  idea  came  out  of  the  movement.  A 
thousand  representatives  were  put  into  the  Communal 
Council  instead  of  400  ;  100  men  entered  the  signoria 
instead  of  80.  But  a  revolution  of  figures  could  be 
of  no  avail.  The  people's  discontent  was  growing  up, 
and  new  revolts  followed.  A  saviour — the  "  tyran  " 
— was  appealed  to  ;  he  massacred  the  rebels,  but  the 
disintegration  of  the  communal  body  continued  worse 
than  ever.  And  when,  after  a  new  revolt,  the  people 
of  Florence  appealed  to  their  most  popular  man, 
Gieronimo  Savonarola,  for  advice,  the  monk's  answer 
was : — "  Oh,  people  mine,  thou  knowest  that  I  cannot 
go  into  State  affairs  ....  purify  thy  soul,  and  if  in 


222  MUTUAL  AID 

such  a  disposition  of  mind  thou  reformest  thy  city, 
then,  people  of  Florence,  thou  shalt  have  inaugurated 
the  reform  in  all  Italy!"  Carnival  masks  and  vicious 
books  were  burned,  a  law  of  charity  and  another 
against  usurers  were  passed — and  the  democracy  of 
Florence  remained  where  it  was.  The  old  spirit  had 
gone.  By  too  much  trusting  to  government,  they 
had  ceased  to  trust  to  themselves ;  they  were  unable 
to  open  new  issues.  The  State  had  only  to  step  in 
and  to  crush  down  their  last  liberties. 

And  yet,  the  current  of  mutual  aid  and  support  did 
not  die  out  in  the  masses,  it  continued  to  flow  even 
after  that  defeat.  It  rose  up  again  with  a  formidable 
force,  in  answer  to  the  communist  appeals  of  the  first 
propagandists  of  the  reform,  and  it  continued  to  exist 
even  after  the  masses,  having  failed  to  realize  the  life 
which  they  hoped  to  inaugurate  under  the  inspiration 
of  a  reformed  religion,  fell  under  the  dominions  of  an 
autocratic  power.  It  flows  still  even  now,  and  it  seeks 
its  way  to  find  out  a  new  expression  which  would  not 
be  the  State,  nor  the  mediaeval  city,  nor  the  village 
community  of  the  barbarians,  nor  the  savage  clan,  but 
would  proceed  from  all  of  them,  and  yet  be  superior  to 
them  in  its  wider  and  more  deeply  humane  conceptions. 


CHAPTER    VII 

MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES 

Popular  revolts  at  the  beginning  of  the  State-period. — Mutual  Aid 
institutions  of  the  present  time. — The  village  community  :  its  strug- 
gles for  resisting  its  abolition  by  the  State. — Habits  derived  from  the 
village-community  life,  retained  in  our  modern  villages. — Switzerland, 
France,  Germany,  Russia. 

THE  mutual-aid  tendency  in  man  has  so  remote  an 
origin,  and  is  so  deeply  interwoven  with  all  the  past 
evolution  of  the  human  race,  that  it  has  been  maintained 
by  mankind  up  to  the  present  time,  notwithstanding 
all  vicissitudes  of  history.  It  was  chiefly  evolved 
during  periods  of  peace  and  prosperity ;  but  when 
even  the  greatest  calamities  befell  men — when  whole 
countries  were  laid  waste  by  wars,  and  whole  popula- 
tions were  decimated  by  misery,  or  groaned  under  the 
yoke  of  tyranny — the  same  tendency  continued  to  live 
in  the  villages  and  among  the  poorer  classes  in  the 
towns  ;  it  still  kept  them  together,  and  in  the  long  run  it 
reacted  even  upon  those  ruling,  fighting,  and  devastating 
minorities  which  dismissed  it  as  sentimental  nonsense. 
And  whenever  mankind  had  to  work  out  a  new  social 
organization,  adapted  to  a  new  phasis  of  development, 
its  constructive  genius  always  drew  the  elements  and 
the  inspiration  for  the  new  departure  from  that  same 
ever-living  tendency.  New  economical  and  social 

institutions,  in  so  far  as  they  were  a  creation  of  the 

223 


224  MUTUAL  AID 

masses,  new  ethical  systems,  and  new  religions,  all 
have  originated  from  the  same  source,  and  the  ethical 
progress  of  our  race,  viewed  in  its  broad  lines,  appears 
as  a  gradual  extension  of  the  mutual-aid  principles 
from  the  tribe  to  always  larger  and  larger  agglomera- 
tions, so  as  to  finally  embrace  one  day  the  whole  of 
mankind,  without  respect  to  its  divers  creeds,  languages, 
and  races. 

After  having  passed  through  the  savage  tribe,  and 
next  through  the  village  community,  the  Europeans 
came  to  work  out  in  mediaeval  times  a  new  form  of 
organization,  which  had  the  advantage  of  allowing 
great  latitude  for  individual  initiative,  while  it  largely 
responded  at  the  same  time  to  man's  need  of  mutual 
support.  A  federation  of  village  communities,  covered 
by  a  network  of  guilds  and  fraternities,  was  called  into 
existence  in  the  mediaeval  cities.  The  immense  results 
achieved  under  this  new  form  of  union — in  well-being 
for  all,  in  industries,  art,  science,  and  commerce — were 
discussed  at  some  length  in  two  preceding  chapters, 
and  an  attempt  was  also  made  to  show  why,  towards 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  mediaeval  republics 
— surrounded  by  domains  of  hostile  feudal  lords,  unable 
to  free  the  peasants  from  servitude,  and  gradually 
corrupted  by  ideas  of  Roman  Caesarism — were  doomed 
to  become  a  prey  to  the  growing  military  States. 

However,  before  submitting  for  three  centuries  to 
come,  to  the  all-absorbing  authority  of  the  State,  the 
masses  of  the  people  made  a  formidable  attempt  at 
reconstructing  society  on  the  old  basis  of  mutual  aid 
and  support.  It  is  well  known  by  this  time  that  the 
great  movement  of  the  reform  was  not  a  mere  revolt 
against  the  abuses  of  the  Catholic  Church.  It  had  its 
constructive  ideal  as  well,  and  that  ideal  was  life  in 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES     225 

free,  brotherly  communities.  Those  of  the  early 
writings  and  sermons  of  the  period  which  found  most 
response  with  the  masses  were  imbued  with  ideas  of 
the  economical  and  social  brotherhood  of  mankind. 
The  "  Twelve  Articles "  and  similar  professions  of 
faith,  which  were  circulated  among  the  German  and 
Swiss  peasants  and  artisans,  maintained  not  only  every 
one's  right  to  interpret  the  Bible  according  to  his  own 
understanding,  but  also  included  the  demand  of  com- 
munal lands  being  restored  to  the  village  communities 
and  feudal  servitudes  being  abolished,  and  they  always 
alluded  to  the  "  true  "  faith — a  faith  of  brotherhood. 
At  the  same  time  scores  of  thousands  of  men  and 
women  joined  the  communist  fraternities  of  Moravia, 
giving  them  all  their  fortune  and  living  in  numerous 
and  prosperous  settlements  constructed  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  communism.1  Only  wholesale  massacres  by 
the  thousand  could  put  a  stop  to  this  widely-spread 
popular  movement,  and  it  was  by  the  sword,  the  fire, 
and  the  rack  that  the  young  States  secured  their  first 
and  decisive  victory  over  the  masses  of  the  people.2 

1  A  bulky  literature,  dealing  with  this   formerly  much-neglected 
subject,  is  now  growing  in  Germany.    Keller's  works,  Ein  Apostel  der 
Wiedertdufer  and  Geschichte  der  Wiedertdufer,  Cornelius's  Geschichte 
des  munsterischen  Aufruhrs,  and   Janssen's  Geschichte  des  deutschtn 

Volkes  may  be  named  as  the  leading  sources.  The  first  attempt  at 
familiarizing  English  readers  with  the  results  of  the  wide  researches 
made  in  Germany  in  this  direction  has  been  made  in  an  ex- 
cellent little  work  by  Richard  Heath — "  Anabaptism  from  its  Rise 
at  Zwickau  to  its  Fall  at  Miinster,  1521-1536,"  London,  1895 
(Baptist  Manuals,  vol.  i.) — where  the  leading  features  of  the  move- 
ment are  well  indicated,  and  full  bibliographical  information  is  given. 
Also  K.  Kautsky's  "  Communism  in  Central  Europe  in  the  Time  of 
the  Reformation,"  London,  1897. 

2  Few  of  our  contemporaries  realize  both  the  extent  of  this  move- 
ment and  the  means  by  which  it  was  suppressed.     But  those  who 
wrote  immediately  after  the  great  peasant   war  estimated  at  from 
100,000  to  150,000  men  the  number  of  peasants  slaughtered  after 

Q 


226  MUTUAL  AID 

For  the  next  three  centuries  the  States,  both  on  the 
Continent  and  in  these  islands,  systematically  weeded 
out  all  institutions  in  which  the  mutual-aid  tendency 
had  formerly  found  its  expression.  The  village  com- 
munities were  bereft  of  their  folkmotes,  their  courts 
and  independent  administration ;  their  lands  were 
confiscated.  The  guilds  were  spoliated  of  their  posses- 
sions and  liberties,  and  placed  under  the  control,  the 
fancy,  and  the  bribery  of  the  State's  official.  The 
cities  were  divested  of  their  sovereignty,  and  the  very 
springs  of  their  inner  life — the  folkmote,  the  elected 
justices  and  administration,  the  sovereign  parish  and 
the  sovereign  guild — were  annihilated  ;  the  State's 
functionary  took  possession  of  every  link  of  what 
formerly  was  an  organic  whole.  Under  that  fatal 

i  policy  and  the  wars  it  engendered,  whole  regions,  once 
populous  and  wealthy,  were  laid  bare  ;  rich  cities  be- 

i  came  insignificant  boroughs  ;  the  very  roads  which 
connected  them  with  other  cities  became  impracticable. 
Industry,  art,  and  knowledge  fell  into  decay.  Political 
education,  science,  and  law  were  rendered  subservient 
to  the  idea  of  State  centralization.  It  was  taught  in 
the  Universities  and  from  the  pulpit  that  the  institu- 
tions in  which  men  formerly  used  to  embody  their 
needs  of  mutual  support  could  not  be  tolerated  in  a 
properly  organized  State  ;  that  the  State  alone  could 
represent  the  bonds  of  union  between  its  subjects  ; 
that  federalism  and  "  particularism  "  were  the  enemies 
of  progress,  and  the  State  was  the  only  proper  initiator 
of  further  development.  By  the  end  of  the  last  century 
the  kings  on  the  Continent,  the  Parliament  in  these 

their  defeat  in  Germany.  See  Zimmermann's  Allgemeine  Geschichtc 
des  grossen  Bauernkrieges.  For  the  measures  taken  to  suppress  the 
movement  in  the  Netherlands  see  Richard  Heath's  Anabaptism. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      227 

isles,  and  the  revolutionary  Convention  in  France, 
although  they  were  at  war  with  each  other,  agreed  in 
asserting  that  no  separate  unions  between  citizens 
must  exist  within  the  State  ;  that  hard  labour  and 
death  were  the  only  suitable  punishments  to  workers 
who  dared  to  enter  into  "  coalitions."  "  No  state  within 
the  State ! "  The  State  alone,  and  the  State's  Church, 
must  take  care  of  matters  of  general  interest,  while  the 
subjects  must  represent  loose  aggregations  of  individ- 
uals, connected  by  no  particular  bonds,  bound  to  appeal 
to  the  Government  each  time  that  they  feel  a  common 
need.  Up  to  the  middle  of  this  century  this  was  the 
theory  and  practice  in  Europe.  Even  commercial  and 
industrial  societies  were  looked  at  with  suspicion.  As 
to  the  workers,  their  unions  were  treated  as  unlawful 
almost  within  our  own  lifetime  in  this  country  and 
within  the  last  twenty  years  on  the  Continent.  The 
whole  system  of  our  State  education  was  such  that  up 
to  the  present  time,  even  in  this  country,  a  notable 
portion  of  society  would  treat  as  a  revolutionary  measure 
the  concession  of  such  rights  as  every  one,  freeman  or 
serf,  exercised  five  hundred  years  ago  in  the  village 
folkmote,  the  guild,  the  parish,  and  the  city. 

The  absorption  of  all  social  functions  by  the  State 
necessarily  favoured  the  development  of  an  unbridled, 
narrow-minded  individualism.  In  proportion  as  the 
obligations  towards  the  State  grew  in  numbers  the 
citizens  were  evidently  relieved  from  their  obligations 
towards  each  other.  In  the  guild — and  in  mediaeval 
times  every  man  belonged  to  some  guild  or  fraternity — 
two  "  brothers  "  were  bound  to  watch  in  turns  a  brother 
who  had  fallen  ill ;  it  would  be  sufficient  now  to  give  one's 
neighbour  the  address  of  the  next  paupers'  hospital. 
In  barbarian  society,  to  assist  at  a  fight  between  two 


228  MUTUAL  AID 

men,  arisen  from  a  quarrel,  and  not  to  prevent  it  from 
taking  a  fatal  issue,  meant  to  be  oneself  treated  as  a 
murderer ;  but  under  the  theory  of  the  all-protecting 
State  the  bystander  need  not  intrude  :  it  is  the  police- 
man's business  to  interfere,  or  not.  And  while  in  a 
savage  land,  among  the  Hottentots,  it  would  be  scan- 
dalous to  eat  without  having  loudly  called  out  thrice 
whether  there  is  not  somebody  wanting  to  share  the 
food,  all  that  a  respectable  citizen  has  to  do  now  is  to 
pay  the  poor  tax  and  to  let  the  starving  starve.  The 
result  is,  that  the  theory  which  maintains  that  men 
can,  and  must,  seek  their  own  happiness  in  a  disregard 
of  other  people's  wants  is  now  triumphant  all  round- 
in  law,  in  science,  in  religion.  It  is  the  religion  of  the 
day,  and  to  doubt  of  its  efficacy  is  to  be  a  dangerous 
Utopian.  Science  loudly  proclaims  that  the  struggle 
of  each  against  all  is  the  leading  principle  of  nature, 
and  of  human  societies  as  well.  To  that  struggle 
Biology  ascribes  the  progressive  evolution  of  the  animal 
world.  History  takes  the  same  line  of  argument ;  and 
political  economists,  in  their  naive  ignorance,  trace  all 
progress  of  modern  industry  and  machinery  to  the 
"  wonderful  "  effects  of  the  same  principle.  The  very 
religion  of  the  pulpit  is  a  religion  of  individualism, 
slightly  mitigated  by  more  or  less  charitable  relations 
to  one's  neighbours,  chiefly  on  Sundays.  "  Practical  " 
men  and  theorists,  men  of  science  and  religious 
preachers,  lawyers  and  politicians,  all  agree  upon  one 
thing — that  individualism  may  be  more  or  less  softened 
in  its  harshest  effects  by  charity,  but  that  it  is  the  only 
secure  basis  for  the  maintenance  of  society  and  its 
ulterior  progress. 

It  seems,  therefore,  hopeless  to  look  for  mutual-aid 
institutions  and  practices  in  modern   society.     What 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      229 

could  remain  of  them  ?  And  yet,  as  soon  as  we  try  to 
ascertain  how  the  millions  of  human  beings  live,  and 
begin  to  study  their  everyday  relations,  we  are  struck 
with  the  immense  part  which  the  mutual-aid  and  mutual- 
support  principles  play  even  now-a-days  in  human 
life.  Although  the  destruction  of  mutual-aid  institu- 
tions has  been  going  on  in  practice  and  theory,  for  full 
three  or  four  hundred  years,  hundreds  of  millions  of 
men  continue  to  live  under  such  institutions ;  they 
piously  maintain  them  and  endeavour  to  reconstitute 
them  where  they  have  ceased  to  exist.  In  our  mutual 
relations  every  one  of  us  has  his  moments  of  revolt 
against  the  fashionable  individualistic  creed  of  the  day, 
and  actions  in  which  men  are  guided  by  their  mutual- 
aid  inclinations  constitute  so  great  a  part  of  our  daily 
intercourse  that  if  a  stop  to  such  actions  could  be  put 
all  further  ethical  progress  would  be  stopped  at  once. 
Human  society  itself  could  not  be  maintained  for  even 
so  much  as  the  lifetime  of  one  single  generation. 
These  facts,  mostly  neglected  by  sociologists  and  yet 
of  the  first  importance  for  the  life  and  further  elevation 
of  mankind,  we  are  now  going  to  analyze,  beginning 
with  the  standing  institutions  of  mutual  support,  and 
passing  next  to  those  acts  of  mutual  aid  which  have 
their  origin  in  personal  or  social  sympathies. 

When  we  cast  a  broad  glance  on  the  present 
constitution  of  European  society  we  are  struck  at  once 
with  the  fact  that,  although  so  much  has  been  done 
to  get  rid  of  the  village  community,  this  form  of  union 
continues  to  exist  to  the  extent  we  shall  presently 
see,  and  that  many  attempts  are  now  made  either  to 
reconstitute  it  in  some  shape  or  another  or  to  find 
some  substitute  for  it.  The  current  theory  as  regards  / 


230  MUTUAL  AID 

the  village  community  is,  that  in  Western  Europe  it 
has  died  out  by  a  natural  death,  because  the  communal 
possession  of  the  soil  was  found  inconsistent  with  the 
modern  requirements  of  agriculture.  But  the  truth 
is  that  nowhere  did  the  village  community  disappear 
of  its  own  accord ;  everywhere,  on  the  contrary,  it 
took  the  ruling  classes  several  centuries  of  persistent 
but  not  always  successful  efforts  to  abolish  it  and  to 
confiscate  the  communal  lands. 

In  France,  the  village  communities  began  to  be 
deprived  of  their  independence,  and  their  lands  began 
to  be  plundered,  as  early  as  the  sixteenth  century. 
However,  it  was  only  in  the  next  century,  when  the 
mass  of  the  peasants  was  brought,  by  exactions  and 
wars,  to  the  state  of  subjection  and  misery  which  is 
vividly  depicted  by  all  historians,  that  the  plundering 
of  their  lands  became  easy  and  attained  scandalous 
proportions.  "  Every  one  has  taken  of  them  according 
to  his  powers  .  .  .  Imaginary  debts  have  been  claimed, 
in  order  to  seize  upon  their  lands  ; "  so  we  read  in  an 
edict  promulgated  by  Louis  the  Fourteenth  in  i66j.1 
Of  course  the  State's  remedy  for  such  evils  was  to 
render  the  communes  still  more  subservient  to  the 
State,  and  to  plunder  them  itself.  In  fact,  two  years 
later  all  money  revenue  of  the  communes  was  con- 
fiscated by  the  King.  As  to  the  appropriation  of 
communal  lands,  it  grew  worse  and  worse,  and  in  the 
next  century  the  nobles  and  the  clergy  had  already 
taken  possession  of  immense  tracts  of  land — one-half 
of  the  cultivated  area,  according  to  certain  estimates 

1  "  Chacun  s'en  est  accommode'  selon  sa  bienseance  .  .  .  on  les  a 
partages  .  .  .  pour  ddpouiller  les  communes,  on  s'est  servi  de  dettes 
simule'es  "  (Edict  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  of  1667,  quoted  by  several 
authors.  Eight  years  before  that  date  the  communes  had  been 
taken  under  State  management). 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELvcs      231 

— mostly  to  let  it  go  out  of  culture.1  But  the  peasants 
still  maintained  their  communal  institutions,  and  until 
the  year  1787  the  village  folkmotes,  composed  of  all 
householders,  used  to  come  together  in  the  shadow 
of  the  bell-tower  or  a  tree,  to  allot  and  re-allot  what 
they  had  retained  of  their  fields,  to  assess  the  taxes, 
and  to  elect  their  executive,  just  as  the  Russian  mir 
does  at  the  present  time.  ,  This  is  what  Babeau's 
researches  have  proved  to  demonstration.2 

The  Government  found,  however,  the  folkmotes 
"too  noisy,"  too  disobedient,  and  in  1787,  elected 
councils,  composed  of  a  mayor  and  three  to  six  syndics, 
chosen  from  among  the  wealthier  peasants,  were  in- 
troduced instead.  Two  years  later  the  Revolutionary 
Assemblee  Constituante,  which  was  on  this  point  at 
one  with  the  old  regime,  fully  confirmed  this  law 
(on  the'  i4th  of  December,  1789),  and  the  bourgeois 
du  village  had  now  their  turn  for  the  plunder  of 
communal  lands,  which  continued  all  through  the 
Revolutionary  period.  Only  on  the  1 6th. of  August, 
1792,  the  Convention,  under  the  pressure  of  the 
peasants'  insurrections,  decided  to  return  the  enclosed 
lands  to  the  communes ; 3  but  it  ordered  at  the  same 
time  that  they  should  be  divided  in  equal  parts  among 
the  wealthier  peasants  only — a  measure  which  pro- 

1  "  On  a  great  landlord's  estate,  even  if  he  has  millions  of  revenue, 
you  are  sure  to  find  the  land  uncultivated"  (Arthur" Young).     "One- 
fourth  part  of  the  soil  went  out  of  culture ;  '  "  for  the  last  hundred 
years  the  land   has  returned  to  a  savage  state;"    "the  formerly 
flourishing  Sologne  is  now  a  big  marsh;"  and  so  on  (The'ron  de 
Montauge,  quoted  by  Taine  in  Origines  de  la  France  Contemporaine, 
tome  i.  p.  441). 

2  A.  Babeau,  Le   Village  sous  FAncien  Regime,  3'  edition.     Paris, 
1892. 

8  In  Eastern  France  the  law  only  confirmed  what  the  peasants 
had  already  done  themselves ;  in  other  parts  of  France  it  usually 
remained  a  dead  letter. 


232 


MUTUAL  AID 


voked  new  insurrections  and  was  abrogated  next  year, 
in  1793,  when  the  order  came  to  divide  the  communal 
lands  among  all  commoners,  rich  and  poor  alike, 
"active"  and  "inactive." 

These  two  laws,  however,  ran  so  much  against  the 
conceptions  of  the  peasants  that  they  were  not  obeyed, 
and  wherever  the  peasants  had  retaken  possession  of 
part  of  their  lands  they  kept  them  undivided.  But 
then  came  the  long  years  of  wars,  and  the  communal 
lands  were  simply  confiscated  by  the  State  (in  1794) 
as  a  mortgage  for  State  loans,  put  up  for  sale,  and 
plundered  as  such ;  then  returned  again  to  the  com- 
munes and  confiscated  again  (in  1813) ;  and  only  in 
1816  what  remained  of  them,  i.  e.  about  15,000,000 
acres  of  the  least  productive  land,  was  restored  to  the 
village  communities.1  Still  this  was  not  yet  the  end 
of  the  troubles  of  the  communes.  Every  new  regime 
saw  in  the  communal  lands  a  means  for  gratifying  its 
supporters,  and  three  laws  (the  first  in  1837  and  the 
last  under  Napoleon  the  Third)  were  passed  to  induce 
the  village  communities  to  divide  their  estates.  Three 

1  After  the  triumph  of  the  middle-class  reaction  the  communal 
lands  were  declared  (August  24,  1794)  the  States  domains,  and, 
together  with  the  Jands  confiscated  from  the  nobility,  were  put  up 
for  sale,  and  pilfered  by  the  bandes  noires  of  the  small  bourgeoisie. 
True  that  a  stop  to  this  pilfering  was  put  next  year  (law  of  2 
Prairial,  An'V),  and  the  preceding  law  was  abrogated ;  but  then  the 
village  communities  were  simply  abolished,  and  cantonal  councils 
were  introduced  instead.  Only  seven  years  later  (9  Prairial,  An  XII), 
i.e.  in  1801,  the  village  communities  were  reintroduced,  but  not 
until  after  having  been  deprived  of  all  their  rights,  the  mayor  and 
syndics  being  nominated  by  the  Government  in  the  36,000  communes 
of  France !  This  system  was  maintained  till  after  the  revolution  of 
1830,  when  elected  communal  councils  were  reintroduced  under 
the  law  of  1787.  As  to  the  communal  lands,  they  were  again  seized 
upon  by  the  State  in  1813,  plundered  as  such,  and  only  partly 
restored  to  the  communes  in  1816.  See  the  classical  collection  of 
French  laws,  by  Dalloz,  Repertoire  de  Jurisprudence;  also  the  works 
of  Doniol,  Dareste,  Bonnemere,  Babeau,  and  many  others. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      233 

times  these  laws  had  to  be  repealed,  in  consequence 
of  the  opposition  they  met  with  in  the  villages  ;  but 
something  was  snapped  up  each  time,  and  Napoleon 
the  Third,  under  the  pretext  of  encouraging  perfected 
methods  of  agriculture,  granted  large  estates  out  of 
the  communal  lands  to  some  of  his  favourites. 

As  to  the  autonomy  of  the  village  communities, 
what  could  be  retained  of  it  after  so  many  blows? 
The  mayor  and  the  syndics  were  simply  looked  upon 
as  unpaid  functionaries  of  the  State  machinery.  Even 
now,  under  the  Third  Republic,  very  little  can  be 
done  in  a  village  community  without  the  huge  State 
machinery,  up  to  the  prdfet  and  the  ministries,  being 
set  in  motion.  It  is  hardly  credible,  and  yet  it  is 
true,  that  when,  for  instance,  a  peasant  intends  to 
pay  in  money  his  share  in  the  repair  of  a  communal 
road,  instead  of  himself  breaking  the  necessary  amount 
of  stones,  no  fewer  than  twelve  different  functionaries 
of  the  State  must  give  their  approval,  and  an  aggregate 
of  fifty-two  different  acts  must  be  performed  by  them, 
and  exchanged  between  them,  before  the  peasant  is 
permitted  to  pay  that  money  to  the  communal  council. 
All  the  remainder  bears  the  same  character.1 

What  took  place  in  France  took  place  everywhere 
in  Western  and  Middle  Europe.  Even  the  chief 
dates  of  the  great  assaults  upon  the  peasant  lands 
are  the  same.  For  England  the  only  difference  is 
that  the  spoliation  was  accomplished  by  separate  acts 
rather  than  by  general  sweeping  measures — with  less 
haste  but  more  thoroughly  than  in  France.  The 

1  This  procedure  is  so  absurd  that  one  would  not  believe  it 
possible  if  the  fifty-two  different  acts  were  not  enumerated  in  full 
by  a  quite  authoritative  writer  in  the  Journal  des  Economistes  (1893, 
April,  p.  94),  and  several  similar  examples  were  not  given  by  the 
same  author. 


234  MUTUAL  AID 

seizure  of  the  communal  lands  by  the  lords  also  began 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  after  the  defeat  of  the  peasant 
insurrection  of  1380 — as  seen  from  Rossus's  Historia 
and  from  a  statute  of  Henry  the  Seventh,  in  which 
these  seizures  are  spoken  of  under  the  heading  of 
"  enormitees  and  myschefes  as  be  hurtfull  ...  to  the 
common  wele."1  Later  on  the  Great  Inquest,  under 
Henry  the  Eighth,  was  begun,  as  is  known,  in  order 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  enclosure  of  communal  lands,  but 
it  ended  in  a  sanction  of  what  had  been  done.2  The 
communal  lands  continued  to  be  preyed  upon,  and 
the  peasants  were  driven  from  the  land.  But  it  was 
especially  since  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
that,  in  England  as  everywhere  else,  it  became  part 
of  a  systematic  policy  to  simply  weed  out  all  traces 
of  communal  ownership ;  and  the  wonder  is  not  that 
it  has  disappeared,  but  that  it  could  be  maintained, 
even  in  England,  so  as  to  be  "  generally  prevalent  so 
late  as  the  grandfathers  of  this  generation." 3  The 
very  object  of  the  Enclosure  Acts,  as  shown  by  Mr. 
Seebohm,  was  to  remove  this  system,4  and  it  was  so 

1  Dr.   Ochenkowski,  England*  wirthschaftliche  Entwickelung  im 
Ausgange  des  Mittelalters  (Jena,  1879),  PP-  35  se1->  where  the  whole 
question  is  discussed  with  full  knowledge  of  the  texts. 

2  Nasse,  Ueber  die  mittelalterliche  Feldgemeinschaft  und  die  Einhe- 
gungen  des  XVI.  Jahrhunderts  in  England  (Bonn,  1869),  pp.  4,  5 ; 
Vinogradov,  Villainage  in  England  (Oxford,  1892). 

3  F.  Seebohm,  The  English  Village  Community,  3rd  edition,  1884, 

PP-  13-15- 

4  "An  examination  into  the  details  of  an  Enclosure  Act  will  make 
clear  the  point  that  the  system  as  above   described   [communal 
ownership]  is  the  system  which  it  was  the  object  of  the  Enclosure 
Act  to  remove"  (Seebohm,  I.e.  p.   13).     And  further  on,  "They 
were  generally  drawn  in  the  same  form,  commencing  with  the  recital 
that  the  open  and  common  fields  lie  dispersed  in  small  pieces,  inter- 
mixed  with   each  other  and   inconveniently  situated;   that   divers 
persons  own  parts  of  them,  and  are  entitled  to  rights  of  common  on 
them  .  .  .  and  that  it  is  desired  that  they  may  be  divided  and 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      235 

well  removed  by  the  nearly  four  thousand  Acts  passed 
between  1760  and  1844  that  only  faint  traces  of  it 
remain  now.  The  land  of  the  village  communities 
was  taken  by  the  lords,  and  the  appropriation  was 
sanctioned  by  Parliament  in  each  separate  case. 

In  Germany,  in  Austria,  in  Belgium  the  village 
community  was  also  destroyed  by  the  State.  Instances 
of  commoners  themselves  dividing  their  lands  were 
rare,1  while  everywhere  the  States  coerced  them  to 
enforce  the  division,  or  simply  favoured  the  private 
appropriation  of  their  lands.  The  last  blow  to  com- 
munal ownership  in  Middle  Europe  also  dates  from 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  Austria 
sheer  force  was  used  by  the  Government,  in  1768,  to 
compel  the  communes  to  divide  their  lands — a  special 
commission  being  nominated  two  years  later  for  that 
purpose.  In  Prussia  Frederick  the  Second,  in  several 
of  his  ordinances  (in  1752,  1763,  1765,  and  1769), 
recommended  to  the  Justizcollegien  to  enforce  the 
division.  In  Silesia  a  special  resolution  was  issued 
to  serve  that  aim  in  1771.  The  same  took  place  in 
Belgium,  and,  as  the  communes  did  not  obey,  a  law 
was  issued  in  1847  empowering  the  Government  to 
buy  communal  meadows  in  order  to  sell  them  in  retail, 
and  to  make  a  forced  sale  of  the  communal  land  when 
there  was  a  would-be  buyer  for  it.2 


enclosed,  a  specific  share  being  let  out  and  allowed  to  each  owner  " 
(p.  14).  Porter's  list  contained  3867  such  Acts,  of  which  the 
greatest  numbers  fall  upon  the  decades  of  1770-1780  and  1800-1820, 
as  in  France. 

1  In  Switzerland  we  see  a  number  of  communes,  ruined  by  wars, 
which  have  sold  part  of  their  lands,  and  now  endeavour  to  buy  them 
back. 

2  A.  Buchenberger,  "  Agrarwesen  und  Agrarpolitik,"  in  A.  Wagner's 
Handbuch  der  politischen  Otkonomie,  1892,  Band  i.  pp.  280  seq. 


236  MUTUAL  AID 

In  short,  to  speak  of  the  natural  death  of  the  village 
communities  in  virtue  of  economical  laws  is  as  grim 
a  joke  as  to  speak  of  the  natural  death  of  soldiers 
slaughtered  on  a  battlefield.  The  fact  was  simply 
this :  The  village  communities  had  lived  for  over  a 
thousand  years  ;  and  where  and  when  the  peasants 
were  not  ruined  by  wars  and  exactions  they  steadily 
improved  their  methods  of  culture.  But  as  the  value 
of  land  was  increasing,  in  consequence  of  the  growth 
of  industries,  and  the  nobility  had  acquired,  under  the 
State  organization,  a  power  which  it  never  had  had 
under  the  feudal  system,  it  took  possession  of  the 
best  parts  of  the  communal  lands,  and  did  its  best  to 
destroy  the  communal  institutions. 

However,  the  village-community  institutions  so  well 
respond  to  the  needs  and  conceptions  of  the  tillers  of 
the  soil  that,  in  spite  of  all,  Europe  is  up  to  this  date 
covered  with  living  survivals  of  the  village  communi- 
ties, and  European  country  life  is  permeated  with 
customs  and  habits  dating  from  the  community  period. 
Even  in  England,  notwithstanding  all  the  drastic 
measures  taken  against  the  old  order  of  things,  it 
prevailed  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Mr.  Gomme — one  of  the  very  few  English 
scholars  who  have  paid  attention  to  the  subject — 
shows  in  his  work  that  many  traces  of  the  communal 
possession  of  the  soil  are  found  in  Scotland,  "  runrig  " 
tenancy  having  been  maintained  in  Forfarshire  up  to 
1813,  while  in  certain  villages  of  Inverness  the  custom 
was,  up  to  1 80 1,  to  plough  the  land  for  the  whole 
community,  without  leaving  any  boundaries,  and  to 
allot  it  after  the  ploughing  was  done.  In  Kilmorie 
the  allotment  and  re-allotment  of  the  fields  was  in 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      237 

full  vigour  "  till  the  last  twenty-five  years,"  and  the 
Crofters'  Commission  found  it  still  in  vigour  in  certain 
islands.1  In  Ireland  the  system  prevailed  up  to  the 
great  famine ;  and  as  to  England,  Marshall's  works,', 
which  passed  unnoticed  until  Nasse  and  Sir  Henry 
Maine  drew  attention  to  them,  leave  no  doubt  as  to; 
the  village-community  system  having  been  widely 
spread,  in  nearly  all  English  counties,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century.2  No  more  than  twenty 
years  ago  Sir  Henry  Maine  was  "greatly  surprised  at 
the  number  of  instances  of  abnormal  property  rights, 
necessarily  implying  the  former  existence  of  collective 
ownership  and  joint  cultivation,"  which  a  compara- 
tively brief  inquiry  brought  under  his  notice.3  And, 
communal  institutions  having  persisted  so  late  as  that, 
a  great  number  of  mutual-aid  habits  and  customs 
would  undoubtedly  be  discovered  in  English  villages 
if  the  writers  of  this  country  only  paid  attention  to 
village  life.4 

1  G.  L.  Gomme,  u  The  Village  Community,  with  special  reference 
to  its  Origin  and  Forms  of  Survival  in  Great  Britain  "  (Contemporary 
Science   Series),    London,    1890,    pp.    141-143;   also   his   Primitive 
Folkmoots  (London,  1880),  pp.  98  seq. 

2  "  In  almost  all  parts  of  the  country,  in  the  Midland  and  Eastern 
counties  particularly,  but  also  in  the  west — in  Wiltshire,  for  example 
— in  the  south,  as  in  Surrey,  in  the  north,  as  in  Yorkshire, — there  are 
extensive  open  and  common  fields.     Out  of  316  parishes  of  North- 
amptonshire 89  are  in  this  condition;  more  than  100  in  Oxfordshire; 
about  50,000  arces  in  Warwickshire;  in  Berkshire  half  the  county; 
more  than  half  of  Wiltshire ;  in  Huntingdonshire  out  of  a  total  area 
of  240,000  acres  130,000  were  commonable   meadows,  commons, 
and  fields  "  (Marshall,  quoted  in  Sir  Henry  Maine's  Village  Com- 
munities in  the  East  and  West,  New  York  edition,  1876,  pp.  88,  89). 

3  Ibid,  p.  88;  also  Fifth  Lecture.     The  wide  extension  of  "com- 
mons "  in  Surrey,  even  now,  is  well  known. 

4  In  quite  a  number  of  books  dealing  with  English  country  life 
which   I   have   consulted  I   have   found   charming  descriptions  of 
country  scenery  and  the  like,  but  almost  nothing  about  the  daily  life 
and  customs  of  the  labourers. 


238  MUTUAL  AID 

As  to  the  Continent,  we  find  the  communal  institu- 
tions fully  alive  in  many  parts  of  France,  Switzerland, 
Germany,  Italy,  the  Scandinavian  lands,  and  Spain,  to 
say  nothing  of  Eastern  Europe ;  the  village  life  in 
these  countries  is  permeated  with  communal  habits 
and  customs ;  and  almost  every  year  the  Continental 
literature  is  enriched  by  serious  works  dealing  with 
this  and  connected  subjects.  I  must,  therefore,  limit 
my  illustrations  to  the  most  typical  instances.  Switzer- 
land is  undoubtedly  one  of  them.  Not  only  the  five 
republics  of  Uri,  Schwytz,  Appenzell,  Glarus,  and 
Unterwalden  hold  their  lands  as  undivided  estates, 
and  are  governed  by  their  popular  folkmotes,  but  in 
all  other  cantons  too  the  village  communities  remain 
in  possession  of  a  wide  self-government,  and  own 
•large  parts  of  the  Federal  territory.1  Two-thirds  of 
all  the  Alpine  meadows  and  two-thirds  of  all  the 
I  forests  of  Switzerland  are  until  now  communal  land  ; 
and  a  considerable  number  of  fields,  orchards,  vine- 
\ yards,  peat  bogs,  quarries,  and  so  on,  are  owned  in 
common.  In  the  Vaud,  where  all  the  householders 
continue  to  take  part  in  the  deliberations  of  their 
elected  communal  councils,  the  communal  spirit  is 
especially  alive.  Towards  the  end  of  the  winter  all 
the  young  men  of  each  village  go  to  stay  a  few  days 
in  the  woods,  to  fell  timber  and  to  bring  it  down  the 
steep  slopes  tobogganing  way,  the  timber  and  the 

1  In  Switzerland  the  peasants  in  the  open  land  also  fell  under  the 
dominion  of  lords,  and  large  parts  of  their  estates  were  appropriated 
by  the  lords  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  (See,  for 
instance,  Dr.  A.  Miaskowski,  in  Schmoller's  Forschungen,  Bd.  ii. 
1879,  pp.  Ia  seq^)  But  the  peasant  war  in  Switzerland  did  not  end  in 
such  a  crushing  defeat  of  the  peasants  as  it  did  in  other  countries, 
and  a  great  deal  of  the  communal  rights  and  lands  was  retained. 
The  self-government  of  the  communes  is,  in  fact,  the  very  foundation 
of  the  Swiss  liberties. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      239 

fuel  wood  being  divided  among  all  households  or  sold 
for  their  benefit.     These  excursions  are  real  fetes  of 
manly  labour.     On  the  banks  of  Lake  Leman  part  of 
the  work  required  to  keep  up  the  terraces  of  the  vine- 
yards is  still   done  in  common  ;   and  in  the   spring, 
when  the  thermometer   threatens  to  fall    below  zero 
before   sunrise,   the   watchman   wakes   up   all   house- 
holders, who  light  fires  of  straw  and  dung  and  protect 
their  vine-trees  from  the  frost  by  an  artificial  cloud. 
In  nearly  all  cantons  the  village  communities  possess 
so-called  Biirgernutzen — that  is,  they  hold  in  common 
a  number  of  cows,  in  order  to  supply  each  family  with 
butter ;  or  they  keep  communal  fields  or  vineyards,  of 
which  the  produce  is  divided  between  the  burghers ;  or 
they  rent  their  land  for  the  benefit  of  the  community.1 
It  may  be  taken  as  a  rule  that  where  the  communes; 
have  retained  a  wide  sphere  of  functions,  so  as  to  be1, 
living  parts  of  the  national  organism,  and  where  they 
have  not  been  reduced  to  sheer  misery,  they  never  fail ; 
to  take  good  care  of  their  lands.    Accordingly  the  com- 
munal estates  in  Switzerland  strikingly  contrast  with 
the  miserable  state  of   "  commons "  in    this  country. 
The  communal  forests  in  the  Vaud  and  the  Valais  are 
admirably  managed,  in  conformity  with    the  rules  of 
modern    forestry.     Elsewhere   the   "  strips "   of  com- 
munal fields,  which  change  owners  under  the  system 
of  re-allotment,  are  very  well  manured,  especially  as 
there  is  no  lack  of  meadows  and  cattle.     The  high- 
level  meadows  are  well  kept  as  a  rule,  and  the  rural 
roads  are  excellent.2     And  when  we  admire  the  Swiss 

1  Miaskowski,  in  Schmoller's  Forschungen,  Bd.  ii.  1879,  p.  15. 

2  See  on  this  subject  a  series  of  works,  summed  up  in  one  of  the 
excellent  and  suggestive  chapters  (not  yet  translated  into  English) 
which  K.  Biicher  has  added  to  the  German  translation  of  Laveleye's 
Primitive  Ownership.    Also  Meitzen,  "  Das  Agrar-  und  Forst-Wesen, 


24o  MUTUAL  AID 

chalet,  the  mountain  road,  the  peasants'  cattle,  the 
terraces  of  vineyards,  or  the  school-house  in  Switzer- 
land, we  must  keep  in  mind  that  without  the  timber 
for  the  chdlet  being  taken  from  the  communal  woods 
and  the  stone  from  the  communal  quarries,  without 
the  cows  being  kept  on  the  communal  meadows,  and 
the  roads  being  made  and  the  school-houses  built  by 
communal  work,  there  would  be  little  to  admire. 

It  hardly  need  be  said  that  a  great  number  of 
mutual-aid  habits  and  customs  continue  to  persist 
in  the  Swiss  villages.  The  evening  gatherings  for 
shelling  walnuts,  which  take  place  in  turns  in  each 
household ;  the  evening  parties  for  sewing  the  dowry 
of  the  girl  who  is  going  to  marry ;  the  calling  of 
"  aids "  for  building  the  houses  and  taking  in  the 
crops,  as  well  as  for  all  sorts  of  work  which  may  be 
required  by  one  of  the  commoners ;  the  custom  of 
exchanging  children  from  one  canton  to  the  other,  in 
order  to  make  them  learn  two  languages,  French  and 
German  ;  and  so  on — all  these  are  quite  habitual  ; 1 
while,  on  the  other  side,  divers  modern  requirements 
are  met  in  the  same  spirit.  Thus  in  Glarus  most  ot 
the  Alpine  meadows  have  been  sold  during  a  time  of 
calamity ;  but  the  communes  still  continue  to  buy  field 
land,  and  after  the  newly-bought  fields  have  been 
left  in  the  possession  of  separate  commoners  for  ten, 
twenty,  or  thirty  years,  as  the  case  might  be,  they 
return  to  the  common  stock,  which  is  re-allotted 

die  Allmenden  und  die  Landgemeinden  der  Deutschen  Schweiz,"  in 
Jahrbuch  fur  Staatswissenschaft,  1880,  iv.  (analysis  of  Miaskowsky's 
works);  O'Brien,  "Notes  in  a  Swiss  village,"  in  Macmillarfs Magazine, 
October  1885. 

1  The  wedding  gifts,  which  often  substantially  contribute  in  this 
country  to  the  comfort  of  the  young  households,  are  evidently  a 
remainder  of  the  communal  habits. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES       241 

according  to  the   needs  of  all.     A  great   number  of 
small  associations  are  formed  to  produce  some  of  the 
necessaries    for    life — bread,    cheese,    and    wine — by 
common  work,  be    it  only  on   a   limited    scale  ;    and 
agricultural  co-operation  altogether  spreads  in  Switzer- 
land   with    the    greatest   ease.      Associations    formed 
between  ten  to  thirty  peasants,  who  buy  meadows  and! 
fields  in  common,  and  cultivate  them  as  co-owners,  are! 
of  common  occurrence  ;   while  dairy  associations  for  t 
the   sale   of  milk,  butter,  and    cheese    are   organized! 
everywhere.     In  fact,  Switzerland  was  the  birthplace  I 
of  that  form  of  co-operation.     It  offers,  moreover,  an 
immense  field  for  the  study  of  all  sorts  of  small  and 
large  societies,  formed  for  the  satisfaction  of  all  sorts 
of  modern  wants.      In    certain   parts    of  Switzerland 
one  finds  in  almost  every  village  a  number  of  associ- 
ations— for  protection  from  fire,  for  boating,  for  main- 
taining  the   quays  on  the  shores  of  a   lake,  for  the 
supply    of    water,    and    so    on ;    and    the    country    is 
covered  with  societies  of  archers,  sharpshooters,  topo- 
graphers, footpath  explorers,  and  the  like,  originated 
from  modern  militarism. 

Switzerland  is,  however,  by  no  means  an  exception 
in  Europe,  because  the  same  institutions  and  habits 
are  found  in  the  villages  of  France,  of  Italy,  of 
Germany,  of  Denmark,  and  so  on.  We  have  just 
seen  what  has  been  done  by  the  rulers  of  France  in 
order  to  destroy  the  village  community  and  to  get 
hold  of  its  lands ;  but  notwithstanding  all  that  one-l 
tenth  part  of  the  whole  territory  available  for  culture,\ 
i.  e.  13,50x3,000  acres,  including  one-half  of  all  the 
natural  meadows  and  nearly  a  fifth  part  of  all  the 
forests  of  the  country,  remain  in  communal  possession. 

The  woods  supply  the  communers  with  fuel,  and  the 

R 


242  MUTUAL   AID 

timber  wood  is  cut,  mostly  by  communal  work,  with 
all  desirable  regularity  ;  the  grazing  lands  are  free  for 
the  commoners'  cattle ;  and  what  remains  of  com- 
munal fields  is  allotted  and  re-allotted  in  certain  parts 
of  France — namely,  in  the  Ardennes — in  the  usual 
way.1 

These  additional  sources  of  supply,  which  aid  the 
poorer  peasants  to  pass  through  a  year  of  bad  crops 
without  parting  with  their  small  plots  of  land  and 
without  running  into  irredeemable  debts,  have  cer- 
tainly their  importance  for  both  the  agricultural 
labourers  and  the  nearly  three  millions  of  small  peas- 
ant proprietors.  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  small 
peasant  proprietorship  could  be  maintained  without 
these  additional  resources.  But  the  ethical  importance 
of  the  communal  possessions,  small  as  they  are,  is  still 
greater  than  their  economical  value.  They  maintain 
in  village  life  a  nucleus  of  customs  and  habits  of 
mutual  aid  which  undoubtedly  acts  as  a  mighty  check 
upon  the  development  of  reckless  individualism  and 
greediness,  which  small  land-ownership  is  only  too 
prone  to  develop.  Mutual  aid  in  all  possible  circum- 
stances of  village  life  is  part  of  the  routine  life  in  all 
parts  of  the  country.  Everywhere  we  meet,  under 
different  names,  with  the  charroi,  i.  e.  the  free  aid  of 
the  neighbours  for  taking  in  a  crop,  for  vintage,  or 
for  building  a  house  ;  everywhere  we  find  the  same 
evening  gatherings  as  have  just  been  mentioned  in 
Switzerland;  and  everywhere  the  commoners  associate 
for  all  sorts  of  work.  Such  habits  are  mentioned  by 

1  The  communes  own,  4,554,100  acres  of  woods  out  of  24,813,000 
in  the  whole  territory,  and  6,936,300  acres  of  natural  meadows  out 
of  11,394,000  acres  in  France.  The  remaining  2,000,000  acres  are 
fields,  orchards,  and  so  on. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      243 

nearly  all  those  who  have  written  upon  French  village 
life.  But  it  will  perhaps  be  better  to  give  in  this  place 
some  abstracts  from  letters  which  I  have  just  received 
from  a  friend  of  mine  whom  I  have  asked  to  com- 
municate to  me  his  observations  on  this  subject. 
They  come  from  an  aged  man  who  for  years  has  been 
the  mayor  of  his  commune  in  South  France  (in 
Ariege) ;  the  facts  he  mentions  are  known  to  him 
from  long  years  of  personal  observation,  and  they 
have  the  advantage  of  coming  from  one  neighbour- 
hood instead  of  being  skimmed  from  a  large  area. 
Some  of  them  may  seem  trifling,  but  as  a  whole  they 
depict  quite  a  little  world  of  village  life. 

"  In  several  communes  in  our  neighbourhood,"  my 
friend  writes,  "the  old  custom  of  remprount  is  in 
vigour.  When  many  hands  are  required  in  a  mttairie 
for  rapidly  making  some  work — dig  out  potatoes  or 
mow  the  grass — the  youth  of  the  neighbourhood  is 
convoked ;  young  men  and  girls  come  in  numbers, 
make  it  gaily  and  for  nothing ;  and  in  the  evening, 
after  a  gay  meal,  they  dance. 

"In  the  same  communes,  when  a  girl  is  going  to 
marry,  the  girls  of  the  neighbourhood  come  to  aid  in 
sewing  the  dowry.  In  several  communes  the  women 
still  continue  to  spin  a  good  deal.  When  the  winding 
off  has  to  be  done  in  a  family  it  is  done  in  one  even- 
ing— all  friends  being  convoked  for  that  work.  In 
many  communes  of  the  Ariege  and  other  parts  of  the 
south-west  the  shelling  of  the  Indian  corn-sheaves  is 
also  done  by  all  the  neighbours.  They  are  treated 
with  chestnuts  and  wine,  and  the  young  people  dance 
after  the  work  has  been  done.  The  same  custom  is 
practised  for  making  nut  oil  and  crushing  hemp.  In 
the  commune  of  L.  the  same  is  done  for  bringing  in 


244  MUTUAL  AID 

the  corn  crops.  These  days  of  hard  work  become 
f£te  days,  as  the  owner  stakes  his  honour  on  serving 
a  good  meal.  No  remuneration  is  given  ;  all  do  it  for 
each  other.1 

"  In  the  commune  of  S.  the  common  grazing-land 
is  every  year  increased,  so  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
land  of  the  commune  is  now  kept  in  common.  The 
shepherds  are  elected  by  all  owners  of  the  cattle, 
including  women.  The  bulls  are  communal. 

"In  the  commune  of  M.  the  forty  to  fifty  small 
sheep  flocks  of  the  commoners  are  brought  together 
and  divided  into  three  or  four  flocks  before  being  sent 
to  the  higher  meadows.  Each  owner  goes  for  a  week 
to  serve  as  shepherd. 

"  In  the  hamlet  of  C.  a  threshing  machine  has  been 
bought  in  common  by  several  households  ;  the  fifteen 
to  twenty  persons  required  to  serve  the  machine  being 
supplied  by  all  the  families.  Three  other  threshing 
machines  have  been  bought  and  are  rented  out  by 
their  owners,  but  the  work  is  performed  by  outside 
helpers,  invited  in  the  usual  way. 

"In  our  commune  of  R.  we  had  to  raise  the  wall  of 
the  cemetery.  Half  of  the  money  which  was  required 
for  buying  lime  and  for  the  wages  of  the  skilled 
workers  was  supplied  by  the  county  council,  and  the 
other  half  by  subscription.  As  to  the  work  of  carry- 
ing sand  and  water,  making  mortar,  and  serving  the 
masons,  it  was  done  entirely  by  volunteers  [just  as  in 
the  Kabyle  dfemmdd].  The  rural  roads  were  repaired 
in  the  same  way,  by  volunteer  days  of  work  given 
by  the  commoners.  Other  communes  have  built  in 

1  In  Caucasia  they  even  do  better  among  the  Georgians.  As  the 
meal  costs,  and  a  poor  man  cannot  afford  to  give  it,  a  sheep  is 
bought  by  those  same  neighbours  who  come  to  aid  in  the  work. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES     245 

the  same  way  their  fountains.  The  wine-press  and 
other  smaller  appliances  are  frequently  kept  by  the 
commune." 

Two  residents  of  the  same  neighbourhood,  questioned 
by  my  friend,  add  the  following : — 

"At  O.  a  few  years  ago  there  was  no  mill.  The 
commune  has  built  one,  levying  a  tax  upon  the  com- 
moners. As  to  the  miller,  they  decided,  in  order  to 
avoid  frauds  and  partiality,  that  he  should  be  paid  two 
francs  for  each  bread-eater,  and  the  corn  be  ground 
free. 

"  At  St.  G.  few  peasants  are  insured  against  fire. 
When  a  conflagration  has  taken  place — so  it  was 
lately — all  give  something  to  the  family  which  has 
suffered  from  it — a  chaldron,  a  bed-cloth,  a  chair,  and 
so  on — and  a  modest  household  is  thus  reconstituted. 
All  the  neighbours  aid  to  build  the  house,  and  in  the 
meantime  the  family  is  lodged  free  by  the  neighbours." 

Such  habits  of  mutual  support — of  which  many  more 
examples  could  be  given — undoubtedly  account  for  the 
easiness  with  which  the  French  peasants  associate  for 
using,  in  turn,  the  plough  with  its  team  of  horses,  the 
wine-press,  and  the  threshing  machine,  when  they  are 
kept  in  the  village  by  one  of  them  only,  as  well  as  for 
the  performance  of  all  sorts  of  rural  work  in  common. 
Canals  were  maintained,  forests  were  cleared,  trees 
were  planted,  and  marshes  were  drained  by  the 
village  communities  from  time  immemorial ;  and  the 
same  continues  still.  Quite  lately,  in  La  Borne  of 
Lozere  barren  hills  were  turned  into  rich  gardens  by 
communal  work.  "  The  soil  was  brought  on  men's 
backs ;  terraces  were  made  and  planted  with  chestnut 
trees,  peach  trees,  and  orchards,  and  water  was 
brought  for  irrigation  in  canals  two  or  three  miles 


246  MUTUAL  AID 

long."     Just  now  they  have  dug  a  new  canal,  eleven 
miles  in  length.1 

To  the  same  spirit  is  also  due  the  remarkable  suc- 
cess lately  obtained  by  the  syndicats  agricoles,  or 
peasants'  and  farmers'  associations.  It  was  not  until 
i  1884  that  associations  of  more  than  nineteen  persons 
were  permitted  in  France,  and  I  need  not  say  that 
when  this  "  dangerous  experiment "  was  ventured 
upon — so  it  was  styled  in  the  Chambers — all  due 
"precautions"  which  functionaries  can  invent  were 
taken.  Notwithstanding  all  that,  France  begins  to  be 
covered  with  syndicates.  At  the  outset  they  were 
only  formed  for  buying  manures  and  seeds,  falsification 
having  attained  colossal  proportions  in  these  two 
branches  ; 2  but  gradually  they  extended  their  functions 
in  various  directions,  including  the  sale  of  agricultural 
produce  and  permanent  improvements  of  the  land. 
In  South  France  the  ravages  of  the  phylloxera  have 
called  into  existence  a  great  number  of  wine-growers' 
associations.  Ten  to  thirty  growers  form  a  syndicate, 
buy  a  steam-engine  for  pumping  water,  and  make  the 
necessary  arrangements  for  inundating  their  vineyards 
in  turn.3  New  associations  for  protecting  the  land 

1  Alfred  Baudrillart,  in  H.  Baudrillart's  Les  Populations  Rurales  de 
la  France,  3rd  series  (Paris,  1893),  p.  479. 

2  The  Journal  des  £conomistes  (August  1892,  May  and   August 
1893)  has  lately  given  some  of  the  results  of  analyses  made  at  the 
agricultural   laboratories   at   Ghent   and   at   Paris.     The   extent   of 
falsification  is  simply  incredible;  so  also  the  devices  of  the  "honest 
traders."     In  certain  seeds  of  grass  there  was  32  per  cent,  of  grains 
of  sand,  coloured  so  as  to  deceive  even  an  experienced  eye ;  other 
samples  contained  from  52  to  22  per  cent,  only  of  pure  seed,  the 
remainder  being  weeds.     Seeds  of  vetch  contained  1 1  per  cent,  of  a 
poisonous  grass  (nielle) ;  a  flour  for  cattle-fattening  contained  36  per 
cent,  of  sulphates ;  and  so  on  ad  infinitum. 

8  A.  Baudrillart,  /.  c.  p.  309.  Originally  one  grower  would  under- 
take to  supply  water,  and  several  others  would  agree  to  make  use  of 
it.  "  What  especially  characterises  such  associations,"  A.  Bau- 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES     247 

from  inundations,  for  irrigation  purposes,  and  for  main- 
taining canals  are  continually  formed,  and  the  unanimity 
of  all  peasants  of  a  neighbourhood,  which  is  required 
by  law,  is  no  obstacle.  Elsewhere  we  have  the! 
fruitibres,  or  dairy  associations,  in  some  of  which  all 
butter  and  cheese  is  divided  in  equal  parts,  irrespective] 
of  the  yield  of  each  cow.  In  the  Ariege  we  find  an 
association  of  eight  separate  communes  for  the  com-} 
mon  culture  of  their  lands,  which  they  have  put; 
together ;  syndicates  for  free  medical  aid  have  been 
formed  in  172  communes  out  of  337  in  the  same 
department ;  associations  of  consumers  arise  in  con- 
nection with  the  syndicates ;  and  so  on.1  "  Quite  a 
revolution  is  going  on  in  our  villages,"  Alfred  Bau- 
drillart  writes,  "  through  these  associations,  which  take 
in  each  region  their  own  special  characters." 

Very  much  the  same  must  be  said  of  Germany.; 
Wherever  the  peasants  could  resist  the  plunder  of] 
their  lands,  they  have  retained  them  in  communal  \ 
ownership,  which  largely  prevails  in  Wiirttemberg, 
Baden,  Hohenzollern,  and  in  the  Hessian  province  of 
Starkenberg.2  The  communal  forests  are  kept,  as  a 

drillart  remarks,  "  is  that  no  sort  of  written  agreement  is  concluded. 
All  is  arranged  in  words.  There  was,  however,  not  one  single  case 
of  difficulties  having  arisen  between  the  parties." 

1  A.  Baudrillart,  /.  c.  pp.  300,  341,  etc.    M.  Terssac,  president  of 
the  St.  Gironnais  syndicate  (Ariege),  wrote  to  my  friend  in  substance 
as   follows : — "  For  the  exhibition  of  Toulouse  our  association  has 
grouped  the  owners  of  cattle  which  seemed  to  us  worth  exhibiting. 
The  society  undertook  to  pay  one-half  of  the  travelling  and  exhibition 
expenses;  one-fourth  was  paid  by  each  owner,  and  the  remaining 
fourth  by  those  exhibitors  who  had  got  prizes.     The  result  was  that 
many  took  part  in  the  exhibition  who  never  would  have  done  it 
otherwise.     Those  who  got  the  highest  awards  (350  francs)  have 
contributed  10  per  cent,  of  their  prizes,  while  those  who  have  got  no 
prize  have  only  spent  6  to  7  francs  each." 

2  In  Wiirttemberg  1,629  communes  out  of  1,910  have  communal 
property.     They  owned  in  1863  over  1,000,000  acres  of  land.     In 


248  MUTUAL  AID 

rule,  in  an  excellent  state,  and  in  thousands  of  com- 
munes timber  and  fuel  wood  are  divided  every  year 
among  all  inhabitants ;  even  the  old  custom  of  the 
Lesholztag  is  widely  spread :  at  the  ringing  of  the 
village  bell  all  go  to  the  forest  to  take  as  much  fuel 
wood  as  they  can  carry.1  In  Westphalia  one  finds 
communes  in  which  all  the  land  is  cultivated  as  one 
common  estate,  in  accordance  with  all  requirements  of 
modern  agronomy.  As  to  the  old  communal  customs 
and  habits,  they  are  in  vigour  in  most  parts  of 
Germany.  The  calling  in  of  aids,  which  are  real  fetes 
of  labour,  is  known  to  be  quite  habitual  in  Westphalia, 
Hesse,  and  Nassau.  In  well-timbered  regions  the 
timber  for  a  new  house  is  usually  taken  from  the 
communal  forest,  and  all  the  neighbours  join  in  build- 
ing the  house.  Even  in  the  suburbs  of  Frankfort  it 
is  a  regular  custom  among  the  gardeners  that  in  case 
of  one  of  them  being  ill  all  come  on  Sunday  to  culti- 
vate his  garden.2 

In  Germany,  as  in  France,  as  soon  as  the  rulers  of 
the  people  repealed  their  laws  against  the  peasant 
associations — that  was  only  in  1884-1888 — these 
unions  began  to  develop  with  a  wonderful  rapidity, 
notwithstanding  all  legal  obstacles  which  were  put  in 


Baden  1,256  communes  out  of  1,582  have  communal  land;  in  1884- 
1888  they  held  121,500  acres  of  fields  in  communal  culture,  and 
675,000  acres  of  forests,  i.e.  46  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  under 
woods.  In  Saxony  39  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  is  in  communal 
ownership  (Schmoller's  Jahrbuch,  1886,  p.  359).  In  Hohenzollern 
nearly  two-thirds  of  all  meadow  land,  and  in  Hohenzollern-Hechingen 
41  per  cent,  of  all  landed  property,  are  owned  by  the  village 
communities  (Buchenberger,  Agranvesen,  vol.  i.  p.  300). 

1  See  K.  Biicher,  who,  in  a  special  chapter  added  to  Laveleye's 
Ureigenthum,  has  collected   all   information   relative  to  the  village 
community  in  Germany. 

2  K.  Biicher,  ibid.  pp.  89,  90. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      249 

their  way.1  "  It  is  a  fact,"  Buchenberger  says,  "  that 
in  thousands  of  village  communities,  in  which  no  sort 
of  chemical  manure  or  rational  fodder  was  ever  known, 
both  have  become  of  everyday  use,  to  a  quite  unfore- 
seen extent,  owing  to  these  associations "  (vol.  ii.  p. 
507).  All  sorts  of  labour-saving  implements  and 
agricultural  machinery,  and  better  breeds  of  cattle,  are 
bought  through  the  associations,  and  various  arrange- 
ments for  improving  the  quality  of  the  produce  begin 
to  be  introduced.  Unions  for  the  sale  of  agricultural 
produce  are  also  formed,  as  well  as  for  permanent 
improvements  of  the  land.2 

From  the  point  of  view  of  social  economics  all  these 
efforts  of  the  peasants  certainly  are  of  little  importance. 
They  cannot  substantially,  and  still  less  permanently, 
alleviate  the  misery  to  which  the  tillers  of  the  soil  are 
doomed  all  over  Europe.  But  from  the  ethical  point 
of  view,  which  we  are  now  considering,  their  import- 
ance cannot  be  overrated.  They  prove  that  even 
under  the  system  of  reckless  individualism  which  now 
prevails  the  agricultural  masses  piously  maintain  their 
mutual-support  inheritance  ;  and  as  sooti  as  the  States 
relax  the  iron  laws  by  means  of  which  they  have 
broken  all  bonds  between  men,  these  bonds  are  at 
once  reconstituted,  notwithstanding  the  difficulties, 
political,  economical,  and  social,  which  are  many,  and 

1  For  this  legislation  and  the  numerous  obstacles  which  were  put 
in  the  way,  in  the  shape  of  red-tapeism  and  supervision,  see  Buchen- 
berger's  Agrarwesen  und  Agrarpolitik,  Bd.  ii.  pp.   342-363,  and  p. 
506,  note. 

2  Buchenberger,    I.e.   Bd.   ii.    p.    510.     The   General   Union    of 
Agricultural  Co-operation  comprises  an  aggregate  of  1,679  societies. 
In  Silesia  an  aggregate  of  32,000   acres  of  land  has   been   lately 
drained    by   73    associations;   454,800  acres    in   Prussia    by   516 
associations;  in   Bavaria    there   are    1,715   drainage  and  irrigation 
unions. 


250  MUTUAL  AID 

in  such  forms  as  best  answer  to  the  modern  require- 
ments of  production.  They  indicate  in  which  direc- 
tion and  in  which  form  further  progress  must  be 
expected. 

I  might  easily  multiply  such  illustrations,  taking 
them  from  Italy,  Spain,  Denmark,  and  so  on,  and 
pointing  out  some  interesting  features  which  are 
proper  to  each  of  these  countries.1  The  Slavonian 
populations  of  Austria  and  the  Balkan  peninsula, 
among  whom  the  "compound  family,"  or  "undivided 
household,"  is  found  in  existence,  ought  also  to  be 
mentioned.2  But  I  hasten  to  pass  on  to  Russia,  where 
the  same  mutual-support  tendency  takes  certain  new 
and  unforeseen  forms.  Moreover,  in  dealing  with  the 
village  community  in  Russia  we  have  the  advantage 
of  possessing  an  immense  mass  of  materials,  collected 
during  the  colossal  house-to-house  inquest  which  was 
lately  made  by  several  zemstvos  (county  councils),  and 
which  embraces  a  population  of  nearly  20,000,000 
peasants  in  different  parts  of  the  country.3 

Two  important  conclusions  may  be  drawn  from  the 
bulk  of  evidence  collected  by  the  Russian  inquests. 
In  Middle  Russia,  where  fully  one-third  of  the  peasants 
have  been  brought  to  utter  ruin  (by  heavy  taxation, 
small  allotments  of  unproductive  land,  rack  rents,  and 

1  See  Appendix  XII. 

2  For  the  Balkan  peninsula  see  Laveleye's  Propriete  Primitive. 

8  The  facts  concerning  the  village  community,  contained  in  nearly 
a  hundred  volumes  (out  of  450)  of  these  inquests,  have  been  classified 
and  summed  up  in  an  excellent  Russian  work  by  "V.  V.,"  The 
Peasant  Community  (Krestianskaya  Obschind),  St.  Petersburg,  1892, 
which,  apart  from  its  theoretical  value,  is  a  rich  compendium  of  data 
relative  to  this  subject.  The  above  inquests  have  also  given  origin 
to  an  immense  literature,  in  which  the  modern  village-community 
question  for  the  first  time  emerges  from  the  domain  of  generalities 
and  is  put  on  the  solid  basis  of  reliable  and  sufficiently  detailed  facts. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      251 

very  severe  tax-collecting  after  total  failures  of  crops), 
there  was,  during  the  first  five-and-twenty  years  after 
the  emancipation  of  the  serfs,  a  decided  tendency 
towards  the  constitution  of  individual  property  in  land 
within  the  village  communities.  Many  impoverished 
"  horseless  "  peasants  abandoned  their  allotments,  and 
this  land  often  became  the  property  of  those  richer 
peasants,  who  borrow  additional  incomes  from  trade, 
or  of  outside  traders,  who  buy  land  chiefly  for  exacting 
rack  rents  from  the  peasants.  It  must  also  be  added 
that  a  flaw  in  the  land-redemption  law  of  1861  offered 
great  facilities  for  buying  peasants'  lands  at  a  very 
small  expense,1  and  that  the  State  officials  mostly  used 
their  weighty  influence  in  favour  of  individual  as 
against  communal  ownership.  However,  for  the  last 
twenty  years  a  strong  wind  of  opposition  to  the  individual 
appropriation  of  the  land  blows  again  through  the 
Middle  Russian  villages,  and  strenuous  efforts  are 
being  made  by  the  bulk  of  those  peasants  who  stand 
between  the  rich  and  the  very  poor  to  uphold  the 
village  community.  As  to  the  fertile  steppes  of  the 
South,  which  are  now  the  most  populous  and  the 
richest  part  of  European  Russia,  they  were  mostly 
colonized,  during  the  present  century,  under  the  system 
of  individual  ownership  or  occupation,  sanctioned  in 
that  form  by  the  State.  But  since  improved  methods 
of  agriculture  with  the  aid  of  machinery  have  been 
introduced  in  the  region,  the  peasant  owners  have 

1  The  redemption  had  to  be  paid  by  annuities  for  forty-nine  years. 
As  years  went,  and  the  greatest  part  of  it  was  paid,  it  became  easier 
and  easier  to  redeem  the  smaller  remaining  part  of  it,  and,  as  each 
allotment  could  be  redeemed  individually,  advantage  was  taken  of 
this  disposition  by  traders,  who  bought  land  for  half  its  value  from 
the  ruined  peasants.  A  law  was  consequently  passed  to  put  a  stop  to 
such  sales. 


252  MUTUAL  AID 

gradually  begun  themselves  to  transform  their  in- 
dividual ownership  into  communal  possession,  and  one 
finds  now,  in  that  granary  of  Russia,  a  very  great 
number  of  spontaneously  formed  village  communities 
of  recent  origin.1 

The  Crimea  and  the  part  of  the  mainland  which  lies 
to  the  north  of  it  (the  province  of  Taurida),  for  which 
we  have  detailed  data,  offer  an  excellent  illustration  of 
that  movement.  This  territory  began  to  be  colonized, 
after  its  annexation  in  1783,  by  Great,  Little,  and 
White  Russians — Cossacks,  freemen,  and  runaway 
serfs — who  came  individually  or  in  small  groups  from 
all  corners  of  Russia.  They  took  first  to  cattle-breed- 
ing, and  when  they  began  later  on  to  till  the  soil,  each 
one  tilled  as  much  as  he  could  afford  to.  But  when — 
immigration  continuing,  and  perfected  ploughs  being 
introduced — land  stood  in  great  demand,  bitter  disputes 
arose  among  the  settlers.  They  lasted  for  years,  until 
these  men,  previously  tied  by  no  mutual  bonds, 
gradually  came  to  the  idea  that  an  end  must  be  put  to 
disputes  by  introducing  village-community  ownership. 
They  passed  decisions  to  the  effect  that  the  land  which 
they  owned  individually  should  henceforward  be  their 
common  property,  and  they  began  to  allot  and  to 
re-allot  it  in  accordance  with  the  usual  village-com- 
munity rules.  The  movement  gradually  took  a  great 
extension,  and  on  a  small  territory,  the  Taurida 
statisticians  found  161  villages  in  which  communal 
ownership  had  been  introduced  by  the  peasant  pro- 
prietors themselves,  chiefly  in  the  years  1855-1885,  in 

1  Mr.  V.  V.,  in  his  Peasant  Community,  has  grouped  together  all 
facts  relative  to  this  movement.  About  the  rapid  agricultural  develop- 
ment of  South  Russia  and  the  spread  of  machinery  English  readers 
will  find  information  in  the  Consular  Reports  (Odessa,  Taganrog). 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      253 

lieu  of  individual  ownership.     Quite  a  variety  of  village- 
community  types  has  been  freely  worked  out  in  this 
way  by  the  settlers.1     What  adds  to   the  interest  of 
this   transformation    is    that   it    took   place,    not    only 
among  the  Great  Russians,  who  are  used  to  village- 
community  life,  but  also  among  Little  Russians,  who 
have  long  since  forgotten  it  under  Polish  rule,  among 
Greeks  and    Bulgarians,   and   even  among  Germans, 
who  have  long  since  worked  out  in  their  prosperous  | 
and  half-industrial   Volga  colonies   their  own  type  of 
village  community.2     It  is  evident  that  the  Mussulman 
Tartars  of  Taurida  hold  their  land  under  the  Mussul- 
man customary  law,  which  is  limited  personal  occupa- 
tion ;  but  even  with  them  the  European  village  com-  1 
munity  has  been  introduced   in  a  few  cases.     As  to  | 
other   nationalities    in    Taurida,   individual  ownership  j 
has  been  abolished  in  six  Esthonian,  two  Greek,  two 
Bulgarian,  one  Czech,  and  one  German  village. 

This  movement  is  characteristic  for  the  whole  of 
the  fertile  steppe  region  of  the  south.  But  separate 
instances  of  it  are  also  found  in  Little  Russia.  Thus 
in  a  number  of  villages  of  the  province  of  Chernigov 
the  peasants  were  formerly  individual  owners  of  their 
plots  ;  they  had  separate  legal  documents  for  their  plots 
and  used  to  rent  and  to  sell  their  land  at  will.  But  in 
the  fifties  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  movement  began 
among  them  in  favour  of  communal  possession,  the  chief 

1  In  some  instances  they  proceeded  with  great  caution.     In  one 
village  they  began  by  putting  together  all  meadow  land,  but  only  a 
small  portion  of  the  fields  (about  five  acres  per  soul)  was  rendered 
communal ;    the  remainder   continued   to   be   owned   individually. 
Later  on,  in  1862-1864,  the  system  was  extended,  but  only  in  1884 
was    communal    possession    introduced   in   full. — V.   V.'s  Peasant 
Community ',  pp.  1-14. 

2  On  the  Mennonite  village  community  see  A.  Klaus,  Our  Colonies 
(Nashi  Kolonii),  St.  Petersburg,  1869. 


254  MUTUAL   AID 

argument  being  the  growing  number  of  pauper  families. 
The  initiative  of  the  reform  was  taken  in  one  village,  and 
the  others  followed  suit,  the  last  case  on  record  dating 
from  1882.  Of  course  there  were  struggles  between 
the  poor,  who  usually  claim  for  communal  possession, 
and  the  rich,  who  usually  prefer  individual  ownership ; 
and  the  struggles  often  lasted  for  years.  In  certain 
places  the  unanimity  required  then  by  the  law  being 
impossible  to  obtain,  the  village  divided  into  two 
villages,  one  under  individual  ownership  and  the  other 
under  communal  possession  ;  and  so  they  remained 
until  the  two  coalesced  into  one  community,  or  else 
they  remained  divided  still.  As  to  Middle  Russia,  it 
is  a  fact  that  in  many  villages  which  were  drifting 
towards  individual  ownership  there  began  since  1880  a 
mass  movement  in  favour  of  re-establishing  the  village 
community.  Even  peasant  proprietors  who  had  lived 
for  years  under  the  individualist  system  returned 
en  masse  to  the  communal  institutions.  Thus,  there 
is  a  considerable  number  of  ex-serfs  who  have  received 
one-fourth  part  only  of  the  regulation  allotments,  but 
they  have  received  them  free  of  redemption  and  in 
individual  ownership.  There  was  in  1890  a  wide-spread 
movement  among  them  (in  Kursk,  Ryazan,  Tambov, 
Orel,  etc.)  towards  putting  their  allotments  together 
and  introducing  the  village  community.  The  "  free 
agriculturists  "  (volnyie  khlebopashtsy],  who  were  liber- 
ated from  serfdom  under  the  law  of  1803,  and  had 
bought  their  allotments — each  family  separately — are 
now  nearly  all  under  the  village-community  system, 
which  they  have  introduced  themselves.  All  these 
movements  are  of  recent  origin,  and  non- Russians  too 
join  them.  Thus  the  Bulgares  in  the  district  of 
Tiraspol,  after  having  remained  for  sixty  years  under 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      255 

the  personal-property  system,  introduced  the  village 
community  in  the  years  1876-1882.  The  German 
Mennonites  of  Berdyansk  fought  in  1890  for  intro- 
ducing the  village  community,  and  the  small  peasant 
proprietors  (Kleinwirthschaftliche]  among  the  German 
Baptists  were  agitating  in  their  villages  in  the  same 
direction.  One  instance  more:  In  the  province  of 
Samara  the  Russian  government  created  in  the  forties, 
by  way  of  experiment,  103  villages  on  the  system  of 
individual  ownership.  Each  household  received  a 
splendid  property  of  105  acres.  In  1890,  out  of  the  103 
villages  the  peasants  in  72  had  already  notified  the 
desire  of  introducing  the  village  community.  I  take 
all  these  facts  from  the  excellent  work  of  V.  V.,  who 
simply  gives,  in  a  classified  form,  the  facts  recorded  in 
the  above-mentioned  house-to-house  inquest. 

This  movement  in  favour  of  communal  possession] 
runs  badly  against  the  current  economical  theories, 
according  to  which  intensive  culture  is  incompatible 
with  the  village  community.  But  the  most  charitable 
thing  that  can  be  said  of  these  theories  is  that  they 
have  never  been  submitted  to  the  test  of  experiment : 
they  belong  to  the  domain  of  political  metaphysics. 
The  facts  which  we  have  before  us  show,  on  the 
contrary,  that  wherever  the  Russian  peasants,  owing 
to  a  concurrence  of  favourable  circumstances,  are  less 
miserable  than  they  are  on  the  average,  and  wherever 
they  find  men  of  knowledge  and  initiative  among  their 
neighbours,  the  village  community  becomes  the  very 
means  for  introducing  various  improvements  in  agri- 
culture and  village  life  altogether.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
mutual  aid  is  a  better  leader  to  progress  than  the  war 
of  each  against  all,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
facts. 


256  MUTUAL  AID 

Under  Nicholas  the  First's  rule  many  Crown  officials 
and  serf-owners  used  to  compel  the  peasants  to  introduce 
the  communal  culture  of  small  plots  of  the  village 
lands,  in  order  to  refill  the  communal  storehouses  after 
loans  of  grain  had  been  granted  to  the  poorest  com- 
moners. Such  cultures,  connected  in  the  peasants' 
minds  with  the  worst  reminiscences  of  serfdom,  were 
abandoned  as  soon  as  serfdom  was  abolished ;  but 
now  the  peasants  begin  to  reintroduce  them  on  their 
own  account.  In  one  district  (Ostrogozhsk,  in  Kursk) 
the  initiative  of  one  person  was  sufficient  to  call  them 
to  life  in  four-fifths  of  all  the  villages.  The  same  is 
met  with  in  several  other  localities.  On  a  given  day 
the  commoners  come  out,  the  richer  ones  with  a  plough 
or  a  cart  and  the  poorer  ones  single-handed,  and  no 
attempt  is  made  to  discriminate  one's  share  in  the 
work.  The  crop  is  afterwards  used  for  loans  to  the 
poorer  commoners,  mostly  free  grants,  or  for  the 
orphans  and  widows,  or  for  the  village  church,  or  for 
the  school,  or  for  repaying  a  communal  debt.1 

That  all  sorts  of  work  which  enters,  so  to  say,  in 
the  routine  of  village  life  (repair  of  roads  and  bridges, 
dams,  drainage,  supply  of  water  for  irrigation,  cutting 
of  wood,  planting  of  trees,  etc.)  are  made  by  whole 
communes,  and  that  land  is  rented  and  meadows  are 
mown  by  whole  communes — the  work  being  accom- 
plished by  old  and  young,  men  and  women,  in  the  way 
described  by  Tolstoi — is  only  what  one  may  expect 

1  Such  communal  cultures  are  known  to  exist  in  159  villages  out 
of  195  in  the  Ostrogozhsk  district ;  in  150  out  of  187  in  Slavyano- 
serbsk;  in  107  village  communities  in  Alexandrovsk,  93  in  Niko- 
layevsk,  35  in  Elisabethgrad.  In  a  German  colony  the  communal 
culture  is  made  for  repaying  a  communal  debt.  All  join  in  the  work, 
although  the  debt  was  contracted  by  94  householders  out  of 
155- 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES     257 

from  people  living  under  the  village-community  system.1 
They  are  of  everyday  occurrence  all  over  the  country. 
But  the  village  community  is  also  by  no  means  averse 
to  modern  agricultural  improvements,  when  it  can 
stand  the  expense,  and  when  knowledge,  hitherto  kept 
for  the  rich  only,  finds  its  way  into  the  peasant's  house. 

It  has  just  been  said  that  perfected  ploughs  rapidly 
spread  in  South  Russia,  and  in  many  cases  the  village 
.communities  were  instrumental  in  spreading  their  use. 
A  plough  was  bought  by  the  community,  experimented 
upon  on  a  portion  of  the  communal  land,  and  the 
necessary  improvements  were  indicated  to  the  makers, 
whom  the  communes  often  aided  in  starting  the  manu- 
facture of  cheap  ploughs  as  a  village  industry.  In  the 
district  of  Moscow,  where  1,560  ploughs  were  lately 
bought  by  the  peasants  during  five  years,  the  impulse 
came  from  those  communes  which  rented  lands  as  a 
body  for  the  special  purpose  of  improved  culture. 

In  the  north-east  (Vyatka)  small  associations  of 
peasants,  who  travel  with  their  winnowing  machines 
(manufactured  as  a  village  industry  in  one  of  the  iron 
districts),  have  spread  the  use  of  such  machines  in  the 
neighbouring  governments.  The  very  wide  spread  of 
threshing  machines  in  Samara,  Saratov,  and  Kherson 
is  due  to  the  peasant  associations,  which  can  afford  to 
buy  a  costly  engine,  while  the  individual  peasant 
cannot.  And  while  we  read  in  nearly  all  economical 
treatises  that  the  village  community  was  doomed  to 
disappear  when  the  three-fields  system  had  to  be 
substituted  by  the  rotation  of  crops  system,  we  see 
in  Russia  many  village  communities  taking  the  initiative 
of  introducing  the  rotation  of  crops.  Before  accepting 

1  Lists  of  such  works  which  came  under  the  notice  of  the  zemstvo 
statisticians  will  be  found  in  V.  V.'s  Peasant  Community,  pp.  459-600. 

s 


258  MUTUAL  AID 

it  the  peasants  usually  set  apart  a  portion  of  the  com- 
munal fields  for  an  experiment  in  artificial  meadows, 
and  the  commune  buys  the  seeds.1  If  the  experiment 
proves  successful  they  find  no  difficulty  whatever  in 
re-dividing  their  fields,  so  as  to  suit  the  five  or  six 
fields  system. 

This  system  is  now  in  use  in  hundreds  of  villages 
of  Moscow,  Tver,  Smolensk,  Vyatka,  and  Pskov.2 
And  where  land  can  be  spared  the  communities  give 
also  a  portion  of  their  domain  to  allotments  for  fruit- 
growing. Finally,  the  sudden  extension  lately  taken 
in  Russia  by  the  little  model  farms,  orchards,  kitchen 
gardens,  and  silkworm-culture  grounds — which  are 
started  at  the  village  school-houses,  under  the  con- 
duct of  the  school-master,  or  of  a  village  volunteer — is 
also  due  to  the  support  they  found  with  the  village 
communities. 

Moreover,  such  permanent  improvements  as  drain- 
age and  irrigation  are  of  frequent  occurrence.  For 
instance,  in  three  districts  of  the  province  of  Moscow 
— industrial  to  a  great  extent — drainage  works  have 
been  accomplished  within  the  last  ten  years  on  a  large 


1  In  the  government  of  Moscow  the  experiment  was  usually  made 
on  the  field  which  was  reserved  for  the  above-mentioned  communal 
culture. 

2  Several  instances  of  such  and  similar  improvements  were  given 
in  the  Official  Messenger,  1894,  Nos.  256-258.     Associations  between 
"  horseless  "  peasants  begin  to  appear  also  in  South  Russia.     Another 
extremely  interesting  fact  is  the  sudden  development  in  Southern 
West  Siberia  of  very  numerous  co-operative  creameries  for  making 
butter.     Hundreds  of  them  spread  in  Tobolsk  and  Tomsk,  without 
any  one  knowing  wherefrom  the  initiative  of  the  movement  came. 
It  came  from  the  Danish  co-operators,  who  used  to  export  their  own 
butter  of  higher  quality,  and  to  buy  butter  of  a  lower  quality  for  their 
own  use  in  Siberia.     After  a  several  years'  intercourse,  they  introduced 
creameries  there.     Now,  a  great  export  trade  has  grown  out  of  their 
endeavours. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES     259 

scale  in  no  less  than  180  to  200  different  villages — the 
commoners  working  themselves  with  the  spade.  At 
another  extremity  of  Russia,  in  the  dry  Steppes  of 
Novouzen,  over  a  thousand  dams  for  ponds  were  built 
and  several  hundreds  of  deep  wells  were  sunk  by  the 
communes  ;  while  in  a  wealthy  German  colony  of  the 
south-east  the  commoners  worked,  men  and  women 
alike,  for  five  weeks  in  succession,  to  erect  a  dam,  two  \ 
miles  long,  for  irrigation  purposes.  What  could  I 
isolated  men  do  in  that  struggle  against  the  dry ! 
climate  ?  What  could  they  obtain  through  individual 
effort  when  South  Russia  was  struck  with  the  marmot 
plague,  and  all  people  living  on  the  land,  rich  and 
poor,  commoners  and  individualists,  had  to  work  with 
their  hands  in  order  to  conjure  the  plague  ?  To  call 
in  the  policeman  would  have  been  of  no  use ;  to 
associate  was  the  only  possible  remedy. 

And  now,  after  having  said  so  much  about  mutual 
aid  and  support  which  are  practised  by  the  tillers  of 
the  soil  in  "  civilized  "  countries,  I  see  that  I  might 
fill  an  octavo  volume  with  illustrations  taken  from  the 
life  of  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  men  who  also  live 
under  the  tutorship  of  more  or  less  centralized  States, 
but  are  out  of  touch  with  modern  civilization  and 
modern  ideas.  I  might  describe  the  inner  life  of  a 
Turkish  village  and  its  network  of  admirable  mutual- 
aid  customs  and  habits.  On  turning  over  my  leaflets 
covered  with  illustrations  from  peasant  life  in  Caucasia, 
I  come  across  touching  facts  of  mutual  support.  I 
trace  the  same  customs  in  the  Arab  djemmda  and  the 
Afghan  purra,  in  the  villages  of  Persia,  India,  and 
Java,  in  the  undivided  family  of  the  Chinese,  in  the 
encampments  of  the  semi-nomads  of  Central  Asia  and 


260  MUTUAL  AID 

the  nomads  of  the  far  North.  On  consulting  notes 
taken  at  random  in  the  literature  of  Africa,  I  find 
them  replete  with  similar  facts — of  aids  convoked  to 
take  in  the  crops,  of  houses  built  by  all  inhabitants 
of  the  village — sometimes  to  repair  the  havoc  done  by 
civilized  filibusters — of  people  aiding  each  other  in 
case  of  accident,  protecting  the  traveller,  and  so  on. 
And  when  I  peruse  such  works  as  Post's  compendium 
of  African  customary  law  I  understand  why,  notwith- 
standing all  tyranny,  oppression,  robberies  and  raids, 
tribal  wars,  glutton  kings,  deceiving  witches  and 
)riests,  slave-hunters,  and  the  like,  these  populations 
have  not  gone  astray  in  the  woods  ;  why  they  have 
maintained  a  certain  civilization,  and  have  remained 
men,  instead  of  dropping  to  the  level  of  straggling 
families  of  decaying  orang-outans.  The  fact  is,  that 
jthe  slave-hunters,  the  ivory  robbers,  the  fighting 
kings,  the  Matabele  and  the  Madagascar  "  heroes  " 
pass  away,  leaving  their  traces  marked  with  blood  and 
fire  ;  but  the  nucleus  of  mutual-aid  institutions,  habits, 
and  customs,  grown  up  in  the  tribe  and  the  village 
community,  remains ;  and  it  keeps  men  united  in 
societies,  open  to  the  progress  of  civilization,  and 
ready  to  receive  it  when  the  day  comes  that  they  shall 
receive  civilization  instead  of  bullets. 

The  same  applies  to  our  civilized  world.  The 
natural  and  social  calamities  pass  away.  Whole  popu- 
lations are  periodically  reduced  to  misery  or  starvation  ; 
the  very  springs  of  life  are  crushed  out  of  millions  of 
men,  reduced  to  city  pauperism  ;  the  understanding 
and  the  feelings  of  the  millions  are  vitiated  by  teach- 
ings worked  out  in  the  interest  of  the  few.  All  this 
is  certainly  a  part  of  our  existence.  But  the  nucleus 
of  mutual-support  institutions,  habits,  and  customs 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES     261 

remains  alive  with  the  millions  ;  it  keeps  them  together ; 
and  they  prefer  to  cling  to  their  customs,  beliefs,  and 
traditions  rather  than  to  accept  the  teachings  of  a  war 
of  each  against  all,  which  are  offered  to  them  under 
the  title  of  science,  but  are  no  science  at  all. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES    (continued] 

Labour-unions  grown  after  the  destruction  of  the  guilds  by  the 
State. — Their  struggles. — Mutual  Aid  in  strikes. — Co-operation. — 
Free  associations  for  various  purposes. — Self-sacrifice. — Countless 
societies  for  combined  action  under  all  possible  aspects. — Mutual 
Aid  in  slum-life. — Personal  aid. 

WHEN  we  examine  the  every-day  life  of  the  rural 
populations  of  Europe,  we  find  that,  notwithstanding 
all  that  has  been  done  in  modern  States  for  the 
destruction  of  the  village  community,  the  life  of  the 
peasants  remains  honeycombed  with  habits  and  cus- 
toms of  mutual  aid  and  support ;  that  important 
vestiges  of  the  communal  possession  of  the  soil  are 
still  retained  ;  and  that,  as  soon  as  the  legal  obstacles 
to  rural  association  were  lately  removed,  a  network  of 
free  unions  for  all  sorts  of  economical  purposes  rapidly 
spread  among  the  peasants — the  tendency  of  this 
young  movement  being  to  reconstitute  some  sort  of 
union  similar  to  the  village  community  of  old.  Such 
being  the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  we  have  now  to  consider,  what  institutions 
for  mutual  support  can  be  found  at  the  present  time 
amongst  the  industrial  populations. 

For  the  last  three  hundred  years,  the  conditions  for 
the  growth  of  such  institutions  have  been  as  unfavour- 
able in  the  towns  as  they  have  been  in  the  villages. 

262 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      263 

It  is  well  known,  indeed,  that  when  the  mediaeval 
cities  were  subdued  in  the  sixteenth  century  by 
growing  military  States,  all  institutions  which  kept  the 
artisans,  the  masters,  and  the  merchants  together  in 
the  guilds  and  the  cities  were  violently  destroyed. 
The  self-government  and  the  self-jurisdiction  of  both 
the  guild  and  the  city  were  abolished  ;  the  oath  of 
allegiance  between  guild-brothers  became  an  act  of 
felony  towards  the  State  ;  the  properties  of  the  guilds 
were  confiscated  in  the  same  way  as  the  lands  of  the 
village  communities ;  and  the  inner  and  technical 
organization  of  each  trade  was  taken  in  hand  by  the 
State.  Laws,  gradually  growing  in  severity,  were 
passed  to  prevent  artisans  from  combining  in  any  way. 
For  a  time,  some  shadows  of  the  old  guilds  were 
tolerated  :  merchants'  guilds  were  allowed  to  exist 
under  the  condition  of  freely  granting  subsidies  to  the 
kings,  and  some  artisan  guilds  were  kept  in  existence 
as  organs  of  administration.  Some  of  them  still  drag 
on  their  meaningless  existence.  But  what  formerly 
was  the  vital  force  of  mediaeval  life  and  industry  has 
long  since  disappeared  under  the  crushing  weight  of 
the  centralized  State. 

In  Great  Britain,  which  may  be  taken  as  the  best 
illustration  of  the  industrial  policy  of  the  modern 
States,  we  see  the  Parliament  beginning  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  guilds  as  early  as  the  fifteenth  century  ; 
but  it  was  especially  in  the  next  century  that  decisive 
measures  were  taken.  Henry  the  Eighth  not  only 
ruined  the  organization  of  the  guilds,  but  also  confis- 
cated their  properties,  with  even  less  excuse  and 
manners,  as  Toulmin  Smith  wrote,  than  he  had  pro- 
duced for  confiscating  the  estates  of  the  monasteries.1 

1  Toulmin  Smith,  English  Guilds,  London,  1870,  Introd.  p.  xliii. 


264  MUTUAL  AID 

Edward  the  Sixth  completed  his  work,1  and  already 
in  the  second  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  we  find 
the  Parliament  settling  all  the  disputes  between  crafts- 
men and  merchants,  which  formerly  were  settled  in 
each  city  separately.  The  Parliament  and  the  king 
not  only  legislated  in  all  such  contests,  but,  keeping  in 
view  the  interests  of  the  Crown  in  the  exports,  they 
soon  began  to  determine  the  number  of  apprentices 
in  each  trade  and  minutely  to  regulate  the  very 
technics  of  each  fabrication — the  weights  of  the  stuffs, 
the  number  of  threads  in  the  yard  of  cloth,  and  the 
like.  With  little  success,  it  must  be  said ;  because 
contests  and  technical  difficulties  which  were  arranged 
for  centuries  in  succession  by  agreement  between 
closely-interdependent  guilds  and  federated  cities  lay 
entirely  beyond  the  powers  of  the  centralized  State. 
The  continual  interference  of  its  officials  paralyzed  the 
trades,  bringing  most  of  them  to  a  complete  decay ; 
and  the  last  century  economists,  when  they  rose 
against  the  State  regulation  of  industries,  only  venti- 
lated a  widely-felt  discontent.  The  abolition  of  that 
interference  by  the  French  Revolution  was  greeted  as 
an  act  of  liberation,  and  the  example  of  France  was 
soon  followed  elsewhere. 

With  the  regulation  of  wages  the  State  had  no 
better  success.  In  the  mediaeval  cities,  when  the 
distinction  between  masters  and  apprentices  or  jour- 
neymen became  more  and  more  apparent  in  the 

1  The  Act  of  Edward  the  Sixth — the  first  of  his  reign — ordered  to 
hand  over  to  the  Crown  "all  fraternities,  brotherhoods,  and  guilds 
being  within  the  realm  of  England  and  Wales  and  other  of  the 
king's  dominions ;  and  all  manors,  lands,  tenements,  and  other 
hereditaments  belonging  to  them  or  any  of  them  "  (English  Guilds, 
Introd.  p.  xliii).  See  also  Ockenkowski's  England*  wirtschaftliche 
Entwickelung  im  Ausgange  des  Mittelalters,  Jena,  1879,  chaps.  ii.-v. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      265 

fifteenth  century,  unions  of  apprentices  (Gesellenver- 
dande),  occasionally  assuming  an  international  char- 
acter, were  opposed  to  the  unions  of  masters  and 
merchants.  Now  it  was  the  State  which  undertook  to 
settle  their  griefs,  and  under  the  Elizabethan  Statute 
of  1563  the  Justices  of  Peace  had  to  settle  the  wages, 
so  as  to  guarantee  a  "  convenient "  livelihood  to 
journeymen  and  apprentices.  The  Justices,  however, 
proved  helpless  to  conciliate  the  conflicting  interests, 
and  still  less  to  compel  the  masters  to  obey  their 
decisions.  The  law  gradually  became  a  dead  letter, 
and  was  repealed  by  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  But  while  the  State  thus  abandoned  the 
function  of  regulating  wages,  it  continued  severely 
to  prohibit  all  combinations  which  were  entered  upon 
by  journeymen  and  workers  in  order  to  raise  their 
wages,  or  to  keep  them  at  a  certain  level.  All 
through  the  eighteenth  century  it  legislated  against 
the  workers'  unions,  and  in  1799  it  finally  pro- 
hibited all  sorts  of  combinations,  under  the  menace 
of  severe  punishments.  In  fact,  the  British  Parlia- 
ment only  followed  in  this  case  the  example  of  the 
French  Revolutionary  Convention,  which  had  issued  a 
draconic  law  against  coalitions  of  workers — coalitions: 
between  a  number  of  citizens  being  considered  as 
attempts  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  State,  which 
was  supposed  equally  to  protect  all  its  subjects. 
The  work  of  destruction  of  the  mediaeval  unions 
was  thus  completed.  Both  in  the  town  and  in  the 
village  the  State  reigned  over  loose  aggregations  of 
individuals,  and  was  ready  to  prevent  by  the  most 
stringent  measures  the  reconstitution  of  any  sort  of 
separate  unions  among  them.  These  were,  then, 


266  MUTUAL  AID 

the  conditions  under  which  the  mutual-aid  tendency  had 
to  make  its  way  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

Need  it  be  said  that  no  such  measures  could  destroy 
that  tendency  ?  Throughout  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  workers'  unions  were  continually  reconstituted.1 
Nor  were  they  stopped  by  the  cruel  prosecutions 
which  took  place  under  the  laws  of  1797  and  1799. 
Every  flaw  in  supervision,  every  delay  of  the  masters 
in  denouncing  the  unions  was  taken  advantage  of. 
Under  the  cover  of  friendly  societies,  burial  clubs,  or 
secret  brotherhoods,  the  unions  spread  in  the  textile 
industries,  among  the  Sheffield  cutlers,  the  miners, 
and  vigorous  federal  organizations  were  formed  to 
support  the  branches  during  strikes  and  prosecutions.2 

/     The  repeal  of  the  Combination  Laws  in  1825  gave 
a  new  impulse  to  the  movement.     Unions  and  national 

'  federations  were  formed  in  all  trades ; 3  and  when 
Robert  Owen  started  his  Grand  National  Consolidated 
Trades'  Union,  it  mustered  half  a  million  members 
in  a  few  months.  True  that  this  period  of  relative 
liberty  did  not  last  long.  Prosecution  began  anew  in 
the  thirties,  and  the  well-known  ferocious  condemna- 
tions of  1832-1844  followed.  The  Grand  National 
Union  was  disbanded,  and  all  over  the  country,  both 
the  private  employers  and  the  Government  in  its  own 
workshops  began  to  compel  the  workers  to  resign  all 

1  See   Sidney  and   Beatrice  Webb,  History  of  Trade- Unionism, 
London,  1894,  pp.  21-38. 

2  See  in  Sidney  Webb's  work  the  associations  which  existed  at 
that  time.     The  London  artisans  are  supposed  to  have  never  beeni 
better  organized  than  in  1810-20. 

8  The  National  Association  for  the  Protection  of  Labour  included 
about  150  separate  unions,  which  paid  high  levies,  and  had  a 
membership  of  about  100,000.  The  Builders'  Union  and  the 
Miners'  Unions  also  were  big  organizations  (Webb,  /.  c.  p.  107). 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      267 

connection  with  unions,  and  to  sign  "  the  Document" 
to  that  effect.  Unionists  were  prosecuted  wholesale 
under  the  Master  and  Servant  Act — workers  being 
summarily  arrested  and  condemned  upon  a  mere  com- 
plaint of  misbehaviour  lodged  by  the  master.1  Strikes 
were  suppressed  in  an  autocratic  way,  and  the  most 
astounding  condemnations  took  place  for  merely 
having  announced  a  strike  or  acted  as  a  delegate  in  it 
— to  say  nothing  of  the  military  suppression  of  strike 
riots,  nor  of  the  condemnations  which  followed  the 
frequent  outbursts  of  acts  of  violence.  To  practise 
mutual  support  under  such  circumstances  was  anything 
but  an  easy  task.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  all 
obstacles,  of  which  our  own  generation  hardly  can 
have  an  idea,  the  revival  of  the  unions  began  again  in 
1841,  and  the  amalgamation  of  the  workers  has  been 
steadily  continued  since.  After  a  long  fight,  which 
lasted  for  over  a  hundred  years,  the  right  of  com- 
bining together  was  conquered,  and  at  the  present 
time  nearly  one-fourth  part  of  the  regularly-employed 
workers,  i.  e.  about  1,500,0x30,  belong  to  trade  unions.2 
As  to  the  other  European  States,  sufficient  to  say 
that  up  to  a  very  recent  date,  all  sorts  of  unions  were 

1  I  follow  in  this  Mr.  Webb's  work,  which  is  replete  with  docu- 
ments to  confirm  his  statements. 

2  Great  changes  have  taken  place  since  the  forties  in  the  attitude 
of  the  richer  classes   towards  the  unions.     However,  even  in  the 
sixties,  the  employers  made  a  formidable  concerted  attempt  to  crush 
them  by  locking  out  whole  populations.     Up  to  1869  the  simple 
agreement  to  strike,  and  the  announcement  of  a  strike  by  placards, 
to  say  nothing  of  picketing,  were  often  punished  as  intimidation. 
Only  in  1875  the  Master  and  Servant  Act  was  repealed,  peaceful 
picketing  was  permitted,  and  "violence  and  intimidation"  during 
strikes  fell  into  the  domain  of  common  law.     Yet,  even  during  the 
dock-labourers'  strike  in   1887,  relief  money  had  to  be  spent  for 
fighting  before  the  Courts  for  the  right  of  picketing,  while  the  prose- 
cutions  of  the   last   few  years   menace  once   more  to  render  the 
conquered  rights  illusory. 


268  MUTUAL  AID 

prosecuted  as  conspiracies  ;  and  that  nevertheless  they 
exist  everywhere,  even  though  they  must  often  take 
the  form  of  secret  societies  ;  while  the  extension  and 
the  force  of  labour  organizations,  and  especially  of  the 
Knights  of  Labour,  in  the  United  States  and  in 
Belgium,  have  been  sufficiently  illustrated  by  strikes  in 
the  nineties.  It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that, 
prosecution  apart,  the  mere  fact  of  belonging  to  a 
labour  union  implies  considerable  sacrifices  in  money, 
in  time,  and  in  unpaid  work,  and  continually  implies 
the  risk  of  losing  employment  for  the  mere  fact  of 
being  a  unionist.1  There  is,  moreover,  the  strike, 
which  a  unionist  has  continually  to  face  ;  and  the  grim 
reality  of  a  strike  is,  that  the  limited  credit  of  a 
worker's  family  at  the  baker's  and  the  pawnbroker's  is 
soon  exhausted,  the  strike-pay  goes  not  far  even  for 
food,  and  hunger  is  soon  written  on  the  children's  faces. 
For  one  who  lives  in  close  contact  with  workers,  a 
protracted  strike  is  the  most  heartrending  sight ;  while 
what  a  strike  meant  forty  years  ago  in  this  country, 
and  still  means  in  all  but  the  wealthiest  parts  of  the 
continent,  can  easily  be  conceived.  Continually,  even 
now,  strikes  will  end  with  the  total  ruin  and  the  forced 
emigration  of  whole  populations,  while  the  shooting 
down  of  strikers  on  the  slightest  provocation,  or  even 
without  any  provocation,2  is  quite  habitual  still  on  the 
continent. 

1  A  weekly  contribution  of  6d.  out  of  an  i8.r.  wage,  or  of  is.  out  of 
25^.,  means  much  more  than  9/.  out  of  a  3007.  income :  it  is  mostly 
taken  upon  food ;  and  the  levy  is  soon  doubled  when  a  strike  is 
declared  in  a  brother  union.     The  graphic  description  of  trade-union 
life,   by  a  skilled  craftsman,   published  by  Mr.   and   Mrs.   Webb 
(pp.  431  seg.),  gives  an  excellent  idea  of  the  amount  of  work  required 
from  a  unionist. 

2  See  the  debates  upon  the  strikes  of  Falkenau  in  Austria  before 
the  Austrian  Reichstag  on  the  loth  of  May,  1894,  in  which  debates 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      269 

And  yet,  every  year  there  are  thousands  of  strikes 
and  lock-outs  in  Europe  and  America — the  most  severe 
and  protracted  contests  being,  as  a  rule,  the  so-called 
"  sympathy  strikes,"  which  are  entered  upon  to  support 
locked-out  comrades  or  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the 
unions.  And  while  a  portion  of  the  Press  is  prone  to 
explain  strikes  by  "  intimidation,"  those  who  have  lived 
among  strikers  speak  with  admiration  of  the  mutual 
aid  and  support  which  are  constantly  practised  by 
them.  Every  one  has  heard  of  the  colossal  amount  of 
work  which  was  done  by  volunteer  workers  for  organ- 
izing relief  during  the  London  dock-labourers'  strike  ; 
of  the  miners  who,  after  having  themselves  been  idle 
for  many  weeks,  paid  a  levy  of  four  shillings  a  week  to 
the  strike  fund  when  they  resumed  work  ;  of  the  miner 
widow  who,  during  the  Yorkshire  labour  war  of  1894, 
brought  her  husband's  life-savings  to  the  strike-fund ; 
of  the  last  loaf  of  bread  being  always  shared  with 
neighbours  ;  of  the  Radstock  miners,  favoured  with 
larger  kitchen-gardens,  who  invited  four  hundred 
Bristol  miners  to  take  their  share  of  cabbage  and 
potatoes,  and  so  on.  All  newspaper  correspondents, 
during  the  great  strike  of  miners  in  Yorkshire  in 
1894,  knew  heaps  of  such  facts,  although  not  all  of 
them  could  report  such  "  irrelevant "  matters  to  their 
respective  papers.1 

Unionism  is  not,  however,  the  only  form  in  which 
the  worker's  need  of  mutual  support  finds  its  ex- 
pression. There  are,  besides,  the  political  associations, 
whose  activity  many  workers  consider  as  more  con- 

the  fact  is  fully  recognized  by  the  Ministry  and  the  owner  of  the 
colliery.     Also  the  English  Press  of  that  time. 

1  Many  such  facts  will  be  found  in  the  Daily  Chronicle  and  partly 
the  Daily  News  for  October  and  November  1894. 


2/0  MUTUAL  AID 

ducive  to  general  welfare  than  the  trade-unions, 
limited  as  they  are  now  in  their  purposes.  Of  course 
the  mere  fact  of  belonging  to  a  political  body  cannot 
be  taken  as  a  manifestation  of  the  mutual-aid  tendency. 
We  all  know  that  politics  are  the  field  in  which  the 
purely  egotistic  elements  of  society  enter  into  the  most 
entangled  combinations  with  altruistic  aspirations. 
But  every  experienced  politician  knows  that  all  great 
political  movements  were  fought  upon  large  and  often 
distant  issues,  and  that  those  of  them  were  the  strong- 
est which  provoked  most  disinterested  enthusiasm. 
All  great  historical  movements  have  had  this  character, 
and  for  our  own  generation  Socialism  stands  in  that 
case.  "  Paid  agitators "  is,  no  doubt,  the  favourite 
refrain  of  those  who  know  nothing  about  it.  The 
truth,  however,  is  that — to  speak  only  of  what  I  know 
personally — if  I  had  kept  a  diary  for  the  last  twenty- 
four  years  and  inscribed  in  it  all  the  devotion  and 
self-sacrifice  which  I  came  across  in  the  Socialist 
movement,  the  reader  of  such  a  diary  would  have  had 
the  word  "  heroism  "  constantly  on  his  lips.  But  the 
men  I  would  have  spoken  of  were  not  heroes ;  they 
were  average  men,  inspired  by  a  grand  idea.  Every 
Socialist  newspaper — and  there  are  hundreds  of  them 
in  Europe  alone — has  the  same  history  of  years  of 
sacrifice  without  any  hope  of  reward,  and,  in  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  cases,  even  without  any  personal 
ambition.  I  have  seen  families  living  without  knowing 
what  would  be  their  food  to-morrow,  the  husband  boy- 
cotted all  round  in  his  little  town  for  his  part  in  the 
paper,  and  the  wife  supporting  the  family  by  sewing, 
and  such  a  situation  lasting  for  years,  until  the  family 
would  retire,  without  a  word  of  reproach,  simply 
saying  :  "  Continue  ;  we  can  hold  on  no  more !  "  I 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      271 

have  seen  men,  dying  from  consumption,  and  knowing 
it,  and  yet  knocking  about  in  snow  and  fog  to  prepare 
meetings,  speaking  at  meetings  within  a  few  weeks 
from  death,  and  only  then  retiring  to  the  hospital  with 
the  words :  "  Now,  friends,  I  am  done ;  the  doctors 
say  I  have  but  a  few  weeks  to  live.  Tell  the  comrades 
that  I  shall  be  happy  if  they  come  to  see  me."  I  have 
seen  facts  which  would  be  described  as  "  idealization  " 
if  I  told  them  in  this  place  ;  and  the  very  names  of 
these  men,  hardly  known  outside  a  narrow  circle  of 
friends,  will  soon  be  forgotten  when  the  friends,  too, 
have  passed  away.  In  fact,  I  don't  know  myself  which 
most  to  admire,  the  unbounded  devotion  of  these  few, 
or  the  sum  total  of  petty  acts  of  devotion  of  the  great 
number.  Every  quire  of  a  penny  paper  sold,  every 
meeting,  every  hundred  votes  which  are  won  at  a 
Socialist  election,  represent  an  amount  of  energy  and 
sacrifices  of  which  no  outsider  has  the  faintest  idea. 
And  what  is  now  done  by  Socialists  has  been  done  in 
every  popular  and  advanced  party,  political  and  re- 
ligious, in  the  past.  All  past  progress  has  been  pro- 
moted by  like  men  and  by  a  like  devotion. 

Co-operation,  especially  in  Britain,  is  often  described 
as  "joint-stock  individualism  "  ;  and  such  as  it  is  now, 
it  undoubtedly  tends  to  breed  a  co-operative  egotism, 
not  only  towards  the  community  at  large,  but  also 
among  the  co-operators  themselves.  It  is,  neverthe- 
less, certain  that  at  its  origin  the  movement  had  an 
essentially  mutual-aid  character.  Even  now,  its  most 
ardent  promoters  are  persuaded  that  co-operation  leads 
mankind  to  a  higher  harmonic  stage  of  economical 
relations,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  stay  in  some  of 
the  strongholds  of  co-operation  in  the  North  without 


272  MUTUAL  AID 

realizing  that  the  great  number  of  the  rank  and  file  hold 
the  same  opinion.  Most  of  them  would  lose  interest 
in  the  movement  if  that  faith  were  gone  ;  and  it  must 
be  owned  that  within  the  last  few  years  broader  ideals 
of  general  welfare  and  of  the  producers'  solidarity  have 
begun  to  be  current  among  the  co-operators.  There 
is  undoubtedly  now  a  tendency  towards  establishing 
better  relations  between  the  owners  of  the  co-operative 
workshops  and  the  workers. 

The  importance  of  co-operation  in  this  country,  in 
Holland  and  in  Denmark  is  well  known  ;  while  in 
Germany,  and  especially  on  the  Rhine,  the  co-operative 
societies  are  already  an  important  factor  of  industrial 
life.1  It  is,  however,  Russia  which  offers  perhaps  the 
best  field  for  the  study  of  co-operation  under  an  infinite 
variety  of  aspects.  In  Russia,  it  is  a  natural  growth, 
an  inheritance  from  the  middle  ages ;  and  while  a 
formally  established  co-operative  society  would  have 
to  cope  with  many  legal  difficulties  and  official  sus- 
picion, the  informal  co-operation — the  arttl — makes 
the  very  substance  of  Russian  peasant  life.  The 
history  of  "  the  making  of  Russia,"  and  of  the  coloniz- 
ation of  Siberia,  is  a  history  of  the  hunting  and 
trading  artdls  or  guilds,  followed  by  village  com- 
munities, and  at  the  present  time  we  find  the  artel 
everywhere  ;  among  each  group  of  ten  to  fifty  peasants 
who  come  from  the  same  village  to  work  at  a  factory, 
in  all  the  building  trades,  among  fishermen  and 
hunters,  among  convicts  on  their  way  to  and  in 
Siberia,  among  railway  porters,  Exchange  messengers, 
Customs  House  labourers,  everywhere  in  the  village 

1  The  31,473  productive  and  consumers'  associations  on  the  Middle 
Rhine  showed,  about  1890,  a  yearly  expenditure  of  18,437,5007. ; 
3,675,0007.  were  granted  during  the  year  in  loans. 


MUTUAL  AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      273 

industries,  which  give  occupation  to  7,000,000  men — 
from  top  to  bottom  of  the  working  world,  permanent 
and  temporary,  for  production  and  consumption  under 
all  possible  aspects.  Until  now,  many  of  the  fishing- 
grounds  on  the  tributaries  of  the  Caspian  Sea  are  held 
by  immense  artdls,  the  Ural  river  belonging  to  the 
whole  of  the  Ural  Cossacks,  who  allot  and  re-allot  the 
fishing-grounds — perhaps  the  richest  in  the  world — 
among  the  villages,  without  any  interference  of  the 
authorities.  Fishing  is  always  made  by  artels  in  the 
Ural,  the  Volga,  and  all  the  lakes  of  Northern  Russia. 
Besides  these  permanent  organizations,  there  are  the 
simply  countless  temporary  arttls,  constituted  for  each 
special  purpose.  When  ten  or  twenty  peasants  come 
from  some  locality  to  a  big  town,  to  work  as  weavers, 
carpenters,  masons,  boat-builders,  and  so  on,  they 
always  constitute  an  artel.  They  hire  rooms,  hire  a 
cook  (very  often  the  wife  of  one  of  them  acts  in  this 
capacity),  elect  an  elder,  and  take  their  meals  in 
common,  each  one  paying  his  share  for  food  and 
lodging  to  the  arte"l.  A  party  of  convicts  on.  its  way 
to  Siberia  always  does  the  same,  and  its  elected  elder 
is  the  officially-recognized  intermediary  between  the 
convicts  and  the  military  chief  of  the  party.  In  the 
hard-labour  prisons  they  have  the  same  organization. 
The  railway  porters,  the  messengers  at  the  Exchange, 
the  workers  at  the  Custom  House,  the  town  messengers 
in  the  capitals,  who  are  collectively  responsible  for 
each  member,  enjoy  such  a  reputation  that  any  amount 
of  money  or  bank-notes  is  trusted  to  the  ar///-member 
by  the  merchants.  In  the  building  trades,  arMls  of 
from  10  to  200  members  are  formed  ;  and  the  serious 
builders  and  railway  contractors  always  prefer  to  deal 
with  an  artdl  than  with  separately-hired  workers.  The 


274  MUTUAL   AID 

last  attempts  of  the  Ministry  of  War  to  deal  directly 
with  productive  artels,  formed  ad  hoc  in  the  domestic 
trades,  and  to  give  them  orders  for  boots  and  all  sorts 
of  brass  and  iron  goods,  are  described  as  most  satis- 
factory ;  while  the  renting  of  a  Crown  iron  work 
( VotkinsK)  to  an  arttl  of  workers,  which  took  place 
seven  or  eight  years  ago,  has  been  a  decided  success. 
We  can  thus  see  in  Russia  how  the  old  mediaeval 
institution,  having  not  been  interfered  with  by  the 
State  (in  its  informal  manifestations),  has  fully  sur- 
vived until  now,  and  takes  the  greatest  variety  of 
forms  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of  modern 
industry  and  commerce.  As  to  the  Balkan  peninsula, 
the  Turkish  Empire  and  Caucasia,  the  old  guilds  are 
maintained  there  in  full.  The  esnafs  of  Servia  have 
fully  preserved  their  mediaeval  character  ;  they  include 
both  masters  and  journeymen,  regulate  the  trades,  and 
are  institutions  for  mutual  support  in  labour  and  sick- 
ness ;  *  while  the  amkari  of  Caucasia,  and  especially  at 
Tiflis,  add  to  these  functions  a  considerable  influence 
in  municipal  life.2 

In  connection  with  co-operation,  I  ought  perhaps  to 
mention  also  the  friendly  societies,  the  unities  of  odd- 
fellows, *the  village  and  town  clubs  organized  for  meet- 
ing the  doctors'  bills,  the  dress  and  burial  clubs,  the 
small  clubs  very  common  among  factory  girls,  to  which 
they  contribute  a  few  pence  every  week,  and  afterwards 
draw  by  lot  the  sum  of  one  pound,  which  can  at  least 
be  used  for  some  substantial  purchase,  and  many  others. 

1  British  Consular  Report,  April  1889. 

2  A  capital  research  on  this  subject  has  been  published  in  Russian 
in  the  Zapiski  {Memoirs)  of  the  Caucasian   Geographical  Society, 
vol.  vi.  2,  Tiflis,  1891,  by  C.  Egiazarorf. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      275 

A  not  inconsiderable  amount  of  sociable  or  jovial  spirit 
is  alive  in  all  such  societies  and  clubs,  even  though  the 
"  credit  and  debit "  of  each  member  are  closely  watched 
over.  But  there  are  so  many  associations  based  on  the 
readiness  to  sacrifice  time,  health,  and  life  if  required, 
that  we  can  produce  numbers  of  illustrations  of  the 
best  forms  of  mutual  support. 

The  Lifeboat  Association  in  this  country,  and  similar 
institutions  on  the  Continent,  must  be  mentioned  in  the 
first  plate.  The  former  has  now  over  three  hundred 
boats  along  the  coasts  of  these  isles,  and  it  would  have 
twice  as  many  were  it  not  for  the  poverty  of  the  fisher- 
men, who  cannot  afford  to  buy  lifeboats.  The  crews  con- 
sist, however,  of  volunteers,  whose  readiness  to  sacrifice 
their  lives  for  the  rescue  of  absolute  strangers  to  them 
is  put  every  year  to  a  severe  test ;  every  winter  the 
loss  of  several  of  the  bravest  among  them  stands  on 
record.  And  if  we  ask  these  men  what  moves  them 
to  risk  their  lives,  even  when  there  is  no  reasonable 
chance  of  success,  their  answer  is  something  on  the 
following  lines.  A  fearful  snowstorm,  blowing  across 
the  Channel,  raged  on  the  flat,  sandy  coast  of  a  tiny 
village  in  Kent,  and  a  small  smack,  laden  with  oranges, 
stranded  on  the  sands  near  by.  In  these  shallow 
waters  only  a  flat-bottomed  lifeboat  of  a  simplified 
type  can  be  kept,  and  to  launch  it  during  such  a  storm 
was  to  face  an  almost  certain  disaster.  And  yet  the 
men  went  out,  fought  for  hours  against  the  wind,  and 
the  boat  capsized  twice.  One  man  was  drowned,  the 
others  were  cast  ashore.  One  of  these  last,  a  refined 
coastguard,  was  found  next  morning,  badly  bruised  and 
half  frozen  in  the  snow.  I  asked  him,  how  they  came 
to  make  that  desperate  attempt  ?  "I  don't  know  my- 


276  MUTUAL  AID 

self,"  was  his  reply.  "  There  was  the  wreck  ;  all  the 
people  from  the  village  stood  on  the  beach,  and  all 
said  it  would  be  foolish  to  go  out ;  we  never  should 
work  through  the  surf.  We  saw  five  or  six  men  cling- 
ing to  the  mast,  making  desperate  signals.  We  all 
felt  that  something  must  be  done,  but  what  could  we 
do?  One  hour  passed,  two  hours,  and  we  all  stood 
there.  We  all  felt  most  uncomfortable.  Then,  all  of 
a  sudden,  through  the  storm,  it  seemed  to  us  as  if  we 
heard  their  cries — they  had  a  boy  with  them.  We 
could  not  stand  that  any  longer.  All  at  once  we  said, 
"We  must  go!"  The  women  said  so  too  ;  they  would 
have  treated  us  as  cowards  if  we  had  not  gone,  although 
next  day  they  said  we  had  been  fools  to  go.  As  one 
man,  we  rushed  to  the  boat,  and  went.  The  boat 
capsized,  but  we  took  hold  of  it.  The  worst  was  to 

see  poor drowning  by  the  side  of  the  boat,  and 

we  could  do  nothing  to  save  him.  Then  came  a  fear- 
ful wave,  the  boat  capsized  again,  and  we  were  cast 
ashore.  The  men  were  still  rescued  by  the  D.  boat, 
ours  was  caught  miles  away.  I  was  found  next  morn- 
ing in  the  snow." 

The  same  feeling  moved  also  the  miners  of  the 
Rhonda  Valley,  when  they  worked  for  the  rescue  of 
their  comrades  from  the  inundated  mine.  They  had 
pierced  through  thirty-two  yards  of  coal  in  order  to 
reach  their  entombed  comrades  ;  but  when  only  three 
yards  more  remained  to  be  pierced,  fire-damp  enveloped 
them.  The  lamps  went  out,  and  the  rescue-men  retired. 
To  work  in  such  conditions  was  to  risk  being  blown  up 
at  every  moment.  But  the  raps  of  the  entombed 
miners  were  still  heard,  the  men  were  still  alive  and 
appealed  for  help,  and  several  miners  volunteered  to 


MUTUAL   AID  AMONGST   OURSELVES      277 

work  at  any  risk  ;  and  as  they  went  down  the  mine, 
their  wives  had  only  silent  tears  to  follow  them — not 
one  word  to  stop  them. 

There  is  the  gist  of  human  psychology.  Unless 
men  are  maddened  in  the  battlefield,  they  "cannot 
stand  it "  to  hear  appeals  for  help,  and  not  to  respond 
to  them.  The  hero  goes  ;  and  what  the  hero  does,  all 
feel  that  they  ought  to  have  done  as  well.  The 
sophisms  of  the  brain  cannot  resist  the  mutual-aid 
feeling,  because  this  feeling  has  been  nurtured  by 
thousands  of  years  of  human  social  life  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  years  of  pre-human  life  in  societies. 

"  But  what  about  those  men  who  were  drowned  in 
the  Serpentine  in  the  presence  of  a  crowd,  out  of  which 
no  one  moved  for  their  rescue  ? "  it  may  be  asked. 
"  What  about  the  child  which  fell  into  the  Regent's 
Park  Canal — also  in  the  presence  of  a  holiday  crowd — 
and  was  only  saved  through  the  presence  of  mind  of  a 
maid  who  let  out  a  Newfoundland  dog  to  the  rescue  ?  " 
The  answer  is  plain  enough.  Man  is  a  result  of  both 
his  inherited  instincts  and  his  education.  Among  the 
miners  and  the  seamen,  their  common  occupations  and 
their  every-day  contact  with  one  another  create  a  feel- 
ing of  solidarity,  while  the  surrounding  dangers  main- 
tain courage  and  pluck.  In  the  cities,  on  the  contrary, 
the  absence  of  common  interest  nurtures  indifference, 
while  courage  and  pluck,  which  seldom  find  their 
opportunities,  disappear,  or  take  another  direction. 
Moreover,  the  tradition  of  the  hero  of  the  mine  and 
the  sea  lives  in  the  miners'  and  fishermen's  villages, 
adorned  with  a  poetical  halo.  But  what  are  the 
traditions  of  a  motley  London  crowd  ?  The  only 
tradition  they  might  have  in  common  ought  to  be 
created  by  literature,  but  a  literature  which  would 


278  MUTUAL  AID 

correspond  to  the  village  epics  hardly  exists.  The 
clergy  are  so  anxious  to  prove  that  all  that  comes  from 
human  nature  is  sin,  and  that  all  good  in  man  has  a 
supernatural  origin,  that  they  mostly  ignore  the  facts 
which  cannot  be  produced  as  an  example  of  higher 
inspiration  or  grace,  coming  from  above.  And  as  to 
the  lay-writers,  their  attention  is  chiefly  directed  to- 
wards one  sort  of  heroism,  the  heroism  which  promotes 
the  idea  of  the  State.  Therefore,  they  admire  the 
Roman  hero,  or  the  soldier  in  the  battle,  while  they 
pass  by  the  fisherman's  heroism,  hardly  paying  attention 
to  it.  The  poet  and  the  painter  might,  of  course,  be 
taken  by  the  beauty  of  the  human  heart  in  itself;  but 
both  seldom  know  the  life  of  the  poorer  classes,  and 
while  they  can  sing  or  paint  the  Roman  or  the  military 
hero  in  conventional  surroundings,  they  can  neither 
sing  nor  paint  impressively  the  hero  who  acts  in  those 
modest  surroundings  which  they  ignore.  If  they 
venture  to  do  so,  they  produce  a  mere  piece  of 
rhetoric.1 

1  Escape  from  a  French  prison  is  extremely  difficult ;  nevertheless 
a  prisoner  escaped  from  one  of  the  French  prisons  in  1884  or  1885. 
He  even  managed  to  conceal  himself  during  the  whole  day,  although 
the  alarm  was  given  and  the  peasants  in  the  neighbourhood  were  on 
the  look-out  for  him.  Next  morning  found  him  concealed  in  a  ditch, 
close  by  a  small  village.  Perhaps  he  intended  to  steal  some  food,  or 
some  clothes  in  order  to  take  off  his  prison  uniform.  As  he  was 
lying  in  the  ditch  a  fire  broke  out  in  the  village.  He  saw  a  woman 
running  out  of  one  of  the  burning  houses,  and  heard  her  desperate 
appeals  to  rescue  a  child  in  the  upper  storey  of  the  burning  house. 
No  one  moved  to  do  so.  Then  the  escaped  prisoner  dashed  out  of 
his  retreat,  made  his  way  through  the  fire,  and,  with  a  scalded  face 
and  burning  clothes,  brought  the  child  safe  out  of  the  fire,  and 
handed  it  to  its  mother.  Of  course  he  was  arrested  on  the  spot  by 
the  village  gendarme,  who  now  made  his  appearance.  He  was  taken 
back  to  the  prison.  The  fact  was  reported  in  all  French  papers,  but 
none  of  them  bestirred  itself  to  obtain  his  release.  If  he  had 
shielded  a  warder  from  a  comrade's  blow,  he  would  have  been  made 
a  hero  of.  But  his  act  was  simply  humane,  it  did  not  promote  the 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      279 

The  countless  societies,  clubs,  and  alliances,  for  the 
enjoyment  of  life,  for  study  and  research,  for  education, 
and  so  on,  which  have  lately  grown  up  in  such  numbers 
that  it  would  require  many  years  to  simply  tabulate 
them,  are  another  manifestation  of  the  same  ever- 
working  tendency  for  association  and  mutual  support. 
Some  of  them,  like  the  broods  of  young  birds  of 
different  species  which  come  together  in  the  autumn, 
are  entirely  given  to  share  in  common  the  joys  of  life. 
Every  village  in  this  country,  in  Switzerland,  Germany; 
and  so  on,  has  its  cricket,  football,  tennis,  nine-pins, 
pigeon,  musical  or  singing  clubs.  Other  societies  are 
much  more  numerous,  and  some  of  them,  like  the 
Cyclists'  Alliance,  have  suddenly  taken  a  formidable 
development.  Although  the  members  of  this  alliance 
have  nothing  in  common  but  the  love  of  cycling,  there 
is  already  among  them  a  sort  of  freemasonry  for  mutual 
help,  especially  in  the  remote  nooks  and  corners  which 
are  not  flooded  by  cyclists ;  they  look  upon  the 
"  C.A.C."— the  Cyclists'  Alliance  Club— in  a  village 
as  a  sort  of  home  ;  and  at  the  yearly  Cyclists'  Camp 
many  a  standing  friendship  has  been  established.  The 
Kegelbriider,  the  Brothers  of  the  Nine  Pins,  in 
Germany,  are  a  similar  association ;  so  also  the 
Gymnasts'  Societies  (300,000  members  in  Germany), 
the  informal  brotherhood  of  paddlers  in  France,  the 
yacht  clubs,  and  so  on.  Such  associations  certainly  do 
not  alter  the  economical  stratification  of  society,  but, 
especially  in  the  small  towns,  they  contribute  to 
smooth  social  distinctions,  and  as  they  all  tend  to 

State's  ideal ;  he  himself  did  not  attribute  it  to  a  sudden  inspiration 
of  divine  grace ;  and  that  was  enough  to  let  the  man  fall  into  oblivion. 
Perhaps,  six  or  twelve  months  were  added  to  his  sentence  for  having 
stolen — "  the  State's  property  " — the  prison's  dress. 


280  MUTUAL  AID 

join  in  large  national  and  international  federations, 
they  certainly  aid  the  growth  of  personal  friendly 
intercourse  between  all  sorts  of  men  scattered  in 
different  parts  of  the  globe. 

The  Alpine  Clubs,  the  Jagdschutzverein  in  Germany, 
which  has  over  100,000  members — hunters,  educated 
foresters,  zoologists,  and  simple  lovers  of  Nature — 
and  the  International  Ornithological  Society,  which 
includes  zoologists,  breeders,  and  simple  peasants  in 
Germany,  have  the  same  character.  Not  only  have 
they  done  in  a  few  years  a  large  amount  of  very  useful 
work,  which  large  associations  alone  could  do  properly 
(maps,  refuge  huts,  mountain  roads  ;  studies  of  animal 
life,  of  noxious  insects,  of  migrations  of  birds,  and  so 
on),  but  they  create  new  bonds  between  men.  Two 
Alpinists  of  different  nationalities  who  meet  in  a 
refuge  hut  in  the  Caucasus,  or  the  professor  and  the 
peasant  ornithologist  who  stay  in  the  same  house,  are 
no  more  strangers  to  each  other ;  while  the  Uncle 
Toby's  Society  at  Newcastle,  which  has  already  in- 
duced over  260,000  boys  and  girls  never  to  destroy 
birds'  nests  and  to  be  kind  to  all  animals,  has  certainly 
done  more  for  the  development  of  human  feelings  and 
of  taste  in  natural  science  than  lots  of  moralists  and 
most  of  our  schools. 

We  cannot  omit,  even  in  this  rapid  review,  the 
thousands  of  scientific,  literary,  artistic,  and  edu- 
cational societies.  Up  till  now,  the  scientific  bodies, 
closely  controlled  and  often  subsidized  by  the  State, 
have  generally  moved  in  a  very  narrow  circle,  and  they 
often  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  mere  openings  for 
getting  State  appointments,  while  the  very  narrowness 
of  their  circles  undoubtedly  bred  petty  jealousies. 
Still  it  is  a  fact  that  the  distinctions  of  birth,  political 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      281 

parties  and  creeds  are  smoothed  to  some  extent  by 
such  associations ;  while  in  the  smaller  and  remote 
towns  the  scientific,  geographical,  or  musical  societies, 
especially  those  of  them  which  appeal  to  a  larger  circle 
of  amateurs,  become  small  centres  of  intellectual  life,  a 
sort  of  link  between  the  little  spot  and  the  wide  world, 
and  a  place  where  men  of  very  different  conditions 
meet  on  a  footing  of  equality.  To  fully  appreciate  the 
value  of  such  centres,  one  ought  to  know  them,  say,  in 
Siberia.  As  to  the  countless  educational  societies 
which  only  now  begin  to  break  down  the  State's  and 
the  Church's  monopoly  in  education,  they  are  sure  to 
become  before  long  the  leading  power  in  that  branch. 
To  the  "Froebel  Unions"  we  already  owe  the  Kinder- 
garten system ;  and  to  a  number  of  formal  and  informal 
educational  associations  we  owe  the  high  standard  of 
women's  education  in  Russia,  although  all  the  time 
these  societies  and  groups  had  to  act  in  strong  oppo- 
sition to  a  powerful  government.1  As  to  the  various 
pedagogical  societies  in  Germany,  it  is  well  known  that 
they  have  done  the  best  part  in  the  working  out  of  the 
modern  methods  of  teaching  science  in  popular  schools. 
In  such  associatious  the  teacher  finds  also  his  best 
support.  How  miserable  the  overworked  and  under- 
paid village  teacher  would  have  been  without  their 
aid!2 

1  The  Medical  Academy  for  Women  (which  has  given  to  Russia  a 
large  portion  of  her  700  graduated  lady  doctors),  the  four  Ladies' 
Universities  (about  1,000  pupils  in  1887  ;  closed  that  year,  and  re- 
opened in  1895),  and  the  High  Commercial  School  for  Women  are 
entirely  the  work  of  such  private  societies.     To  the  same  societies 
we  owe  the  high  standard  which  the  girls'  gymnasia  attained  since 
they  were  opened  in  the  sixties.     The  100  gymnasia  now  scattered 
over  the   Empire   (over   70,000   pupils),   correspond   to   the   High 
Schools  for  Girls  in  this  country ;  all  teachers  are,  however,  graduates 
of  the  universities. 

2  The  Vereinfur  Verlreitung  gemeinniitzlicher  Kenntnisse,  although 


282  MUTUAL  AID 

All  these  associations,  societies,  brotherhoods,  alli- 
ances, institutes,  and  so  on,  which  must  now  be  counted 
by  the  ten  thousand  in  Europe  alone,  and  each  of 
which  represents  an  immense  amount  of  voluntary, 
unambitious,  and  unpaid  or  underpaid  work — what  are 
they  but  so  many  manifestations,  under  an  infinite 
variety  of  aspects,  of  the  same  ever-living  tendency  of 
man  towards  mutual  aid  and  support  ?  For  nearly 
three  centuries  men  were  prevented  from  joining  hands 
even  for  literary,  artistic,  and  educational  purposes. 
Societies  could  only  be  formed  under  the  protection  of 
the  State,  or  the  Church,  or  as  secret  brotherhoods, 
like  free-masonry.  But  now  that  the  resistance  has 
been  broken,  they  swarm  in  all  directions,  they  extend 
over  all  multifarious  branches  of  human  activity,  they 
become  international,  and  they  undoubtedly  contribute, 
to  an  extent  which  cannot  yet  be  fully  appreciated,  to 
break  down  the  screens  erected  by  States  between 
different  nationalities.  Notwithstanding  the  jealousies 
which  are  bred  by  commercial  competition,  and  the 
provocations  to  hatred  which  are  sounded  by  the 
ghosts  of  a  decaying  past,  there  is  a  conscience  of 
international  solidarity  which  is  growing  both  among 
the  leading  spirits  of  the  world  and  the  masses  of  the 
workers,  since  they  also  have  conquered  the  right  of 
international  intercourse  ;  and  in  the  preventing  of  a 
European  war  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century, 
this  spirit  has  undoubtedly  had  its  share. 

The  religious  charitable  associations,  which  again 
represent  a  whole  world,  certainly  must  be  mentioned 
in  this  place.  There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that 

it  has  only  5,500  members,  has  already  opened  more  than  1,000 
public  and  school  libraries,  organized  thousands  of  lectures,  and 
published  most  valuable  books. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      283 

the  great  bulk  of  their  members  are  moved  by  the 
same  mutual-aid  feelings  which  are  common  to  all 
mankind.  Unhappily  the  religious  teachers  of  men 
prefer  to  ascribe  to  such  feelings  a  supernatural  origin. 
Many  of  them  pretend  that  man  does  not  consciously 
obey  the  mutual-aid  inspiration  so  long  as  he  has  not 
been  enlightened  by  the  teachings  of  the  special 
religion  which  they  represent,  and,  with  St.  Augustin, 
most  of  them  do  not  recognize  such  feelings  in  the 
"  pagan  savage."  Moreover,  while  early  Christianity, 
like  all  other  religions,  was  an  appeal  to  the  broadly 
human  feelings  of  mutual  aid  and  sympathy,  the 
Christian  Church  has  aided  the  State  in  wrecking  all 
standing  institutions  of  mutual  aid  and  support  which 
were  anterior  to  it,  or  developed  outside  of  it;  and, 
instead  of  the  mutual  aid  which  every  savage  considers 
as  due  to  his  kinsman,  it  has  preached  charity  which 
bears  a  character  of  inspiration  from  above,  and,  accord- 
ingly, implies  a  certain  superiority  of  the  giver  upon 
the  receiver.  With  this  limitation,  and  without  any 
intention  to  give  offence  to  those  who  consider  them- 
selves as  a  body  elect  when  they  accomplish  acts 
simply  humane,  we  certainly  may  consider  the  immense 
numbers  of  religious  charitable  associations  as  an  out- 
come of  the  same  mutual-aid  tendency. 

All  these  facts  show  that  a  reckless  prosecution  of 
personal  interests,  with  no  regard  to  other  people's 
needs,  is  not  the  only  characteristic  of  modern  life. 
By  the  side  of  this  current  which  so  proudly  claims 
leadership  in  human  affairs,  we  perceive  a  hard  struggle 
sustained  by  both  the  rural  and  industrial  populations 
in  order  to  reintroduce  standing  institutions  of  mutual 
aid  and  support  ;  and  we  discover,  in  all  classes  of 


284  MUTUAL  AID 

society,  a  widely-spread  movement  towards  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  infinite  variety  of  more  or  less  per- 
manent institutions  for  the  same  purpose.  But  when 
we  pass  from  public  life  to  the  private  life  of  the  modern 
individual,  we  discover  another  extremely  wide  world  of 
mutual  aid  and  support,  which  only  passes  unnoticed 
by  most  sociologists  because  it  is  limited  to  the  narrow 
circle  of  the  family  and  personal  friendship.1 

Under  the  present  social  system,  all  bonds  of  union 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  same  street  or  neighbour- 
hood have  been  dissolved.  In  the  richer  parts  of  the 
large  towns,  people  live  without  knowing  who  are  their 
,  next-door  neighbours.  But  in  the  crowded  lanes  people 
know  each  other  perfectly,  and  are  continually  brought 
into  mutual  contact.  Of  course,  petty  quarrels  go  their 
course,  in  the  lanes  as  elsewhere ;  but  groupings  in 
accordance  with  personal  affinities  grow  up,  and  within 
their  circle  mutual  aid  is  practised  to  an  extent  of  which 
the  richer  classes  have  no  idea.  If  we  take,  for  instance, 
the  children  of  a  poor  neighbourhood  who  play  in  a 
street  or  a  churchyard,  or  on  a  green,  we  notice  at  once 

1  Very  few  writers  in  sociology  have  paid  attention  to  it.  Dr. 
Ihering  is  one  of  them,  and  his  case  is  very  instructive.  When  the 
great  German  writer  on  law  began  his  philosophical  work,  Der  Zweck 
im  Rechte  ("  Purpose  in  Law  "),  he  intended  to  analyze  "  the  active 
forces  which  call  forth  the  advance  of  society  and  maintain  it,"  and 
to  thus  give  "  the  theory  of  the  sociable  man."  He  analyzed,  first, 
the  egotistic  forces  at  work,  including  the  present  wage-system  and 
coercion  in  its  variety  of  political  and  social  laws ;  and  in  a  carefully- 
worked-out  scheme  of  his  work  he  intended  to  give  the  last  paragraph 
to  the  ethical  forces — the  sense  of  duty  and  mutual  love — which  con- 
tribute to  the  same  aim.  When  he  came,  however,  to  discuss  the 
social  functions  of  these  two  factors,  he  had  to  write  a  second  volume, 
twice  as  big  as  the  first ;  and  yet  he  treated  only  of  the  personal 
factors  which  will  take  in  the  following  pages  only  a  few  lines.  L.  Dargun 
took  up  the  same  idea  in  Egoismus  und  Altruismus  in  der  Nationalo- 
konomie,  Leipzig,  1885,  adding  some  new  facts.  Biichner's  Love,  and 
the  several  paraphrases  of  it  published  here  and  in  Germany,  deal 
with  the  same  subject. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      285 

that  a  close  union  exists  among  them,  notwithstanding 
the  temporary  fights,  and  that  that  union  protects  them 
from  all  sorts  of  misfortunes.  As  soon  as  a  mite  bends 
inquisitively  over  the  opening  of  a  drain — "  Don't  stop 
there,"  another  mite  shouts  out,  "  fever  sits  in  the 
hole  !  "  "  Don't  climb  over  that  wall,  the  train  will  kill 
you  if  you  tumble  down  !  Don't  come  near  to  the  ditch  ! 
Don't  eat  those  berries — poison  !  you  will  die  !  "  Such 
are  the  first  teachings  imparted  to  the  urchin  when  he 
joins  his  mates  out-doors.  How  many  of  the  children 
whose  play-grounds  are  the  pavements  around  "  model 
workers'  dwellings,"  or  the  quays  and  bridges  of  the 
canals,  would  be  crushed  to  death  by  the  carts  or 
drowned  in  the  muddy  waters,  were  it  not  for  that  sort 
of  mutual  support !  And  when  a  fair  Jack  has  made  a 
slip  into  the  unprotected  ditch  at  the  back  of  the  milk- 
man's yard,  or  a  cherry-cheeked  Lizzie  has,  after  all, 
tumbled  down  into  the  canal,  the  young  brood  raises 
such  cries  that  all  the  neighbourhood  is  on  the  alert 
and  rushes  to  the  rescue. 

Then  comes  in  the  alliance  of  the  mothers.  "  You 
could  not  imagine  "  (a  lady-doctor  who  lives  in  a  poor 
neighbourhood  told  me  lately)  "  how  much  they  help 
each  other.  If  a  woman  has  prepared  nothing,  or  could 
prepare  nothing,  for  the  baby  which  she  expected — 
and  how  often  that  happens  ! — all  the  neighbours  bring 
something  for  the  new-comer.  One  of  the  neighbours 
always  takes  care  of  the  children,  and  some  other 
always  drops  in  to  take  care  of  the  household,  so  long 
as  the  mother  is  in  bed."  This  habit  is  general.  It  is 
mentioned  by  all  those  who  have  lived  among  the  poor. 
In  a  thousand  small  ways  the  mothers  support  each 
other  and  bestow  their  care  upon  children  that  are  not 
their  own.  Some  training — good  or  bad,  let  them 


286  MUTUAL  AID 

decide  it  for  themselves — is  required  in  a  lady  of  the 
richer  classes  to  render  her  able  to  pass  by  a  shivering 
and  hungry  child  in  the  street  without  noticing  it. 
But  the  mothers  of  the  poorer  classes  have  not  that 
training.  They  cannot  stand  the  sight  of  a  hungry 
child  ;  they  must  feed  it,  and  so  they  do.  "  When  the 
school  children  beg  bread,  they  seldom  or  rather  never 
meet  with  a  refusal " — a  lady-friend,  who  has  worked 
several  years  in  Whitechapel  in  connection  with  a 
workers'  club,  writes  to  me.  But  I  may,  perhaps, 
as  well  transcribe  a  few  more  passages  from  her 
letter : — 

"  Nursing  neighbours,  in  cases  of  illness,  without  any  shade 
of  remuneration,  is  quite  general  among  the  workers.  Also, 
when  a  woman  has  little  children,  and  goes  out  for  work, 
another  mother  always  takes  care  of  them. 

"  If,  in  the  working  classes,  they  would  not  help  each 
other,  they  could  not  exist.  I  know  families  which  con- 
tinually help  each  other — with  money,  with  food,  with  fuel, 
for  bringing  up  the  little  children,  in  cases  of  illness,  in  cases 
of  death. 

"  The  *  mine  '  and  '  thine '  is  much  less  sharply  observed 
among  the  poor  than  among  the  rich.  Shoes,  dress,  hats,  and 
so  on, — what  may  be  wanted  on  the  spot — are  continually 
borrowed  from  each  other,  also  all  sorts  of  household 
things. 

"  Last  winter  the  members  of  the  United  Radical  Club  had 
brought  together  some  little  money,  and  began  after  Christmas 
to  distribute  free  soup  and  bread  to  the  children  going  to 
school.  Gradually  they  had  1,800  children  to  attend  to.  The 
money  came  from  outsiders,  but  all  the  work  was  done  by  the 
members  of  the  club.  Some  of  them,  who  were  out  of  work, 
came  at  four  in  the  morning  to  wash  and  to  peel  the  vege- 
tables ;  five  women  came  at  nine  or  ten  (after  having  done 
their  own  household  work)  for  cooking,  and  stayed  till  six 
or  seven  to  wash  the  dishes.  And  at  meal  time,  between 
twelve  and  half-past  one,  twenty  to  thirty  workers  came 
in  to  aid  in  serving  the  soup,  each  one  staying  what  he  could 
spare  of  his  meal  time.  This  lasted  for  two  months.  No 
one  was  paid." 


MUTUAL   AID  AMONGST    OURSELVES      287 

My  friend  also  mentions  various  individual  cases,  of 
which  the  following  are  typical : — 

"  Annie  W.  was  given  by  her  mother  to  be  boarded  by  an 
old  person  in  Wilmot  Street.  When  her  mother  died,  the  old 
woman,  who  herself  was  very  poor,  kept  the  child  without 
being  paid  a  penny  for  that.  When  the  old  lady  died  too,  the 
child,  who  was  five  years  old,  was  of  course  neglected  during 
her  illness,  and  was  ragged  ;  but  she  was  taken  at  once  by 
Mrs.  S.,  the  wife  of  a  shoemaker,  who  herself  has  six  children. 
Lately,  when  the  husband  was  ill,  they  had  not  much  to  eat, 
all  of  them. 

"  The  other  day,  Mrs.  M.,  mother  of  six  children,  attended 
Mrs.  M — g  throughout  her  illness,  and  took  to  her  own  rooms 
the  elder  child.  .  .  .  But  do  you  need  such  facts  ?  They  are 
quite  general.  ...  I  know  also  Mrs.  D.  (Oval,  Hackney  Road), 
who  has  a  sewing  machine  and  continually  sews  for  others, 
without  ever  accepting  any  remuneration,  although  she  has 
herself  five  children  and  her  husband  to  look  after.  .  .  .  And 
so  on." 

For  every  one  who  has  any  idea  of  the  life  of  the 
labouring  classes  it  is  evident  that  without  mutual  aid 
being  practised  among  them  on  a  large  scale  they 
never  could  pull  through  all  their  difficulties.  It  is 
only  by  chance  that  a  worker's  family  can  live  its  life- 
time without  having  to  face  such  circumstances  as 
the  crisis  described  by  the  ribbon  weaver,  Joseph 
Gutteridge,  in  his  autobiography.1  And  if  all  do  not 
go  to  the  ground  in  such  cases,  they  owe  it  to  mutual 
help.  In  Gutteridge's  case  it  was  an  old  nurse, 
miserably  poor  herself,  who  turned  up  at  the  moment 
when  the  family  was  slipping  towards  a  final  catastrophe, 
and  brought  in  some  bread,  coal,  and  bedding,  which 
she  had  obtained  on  credit.  In  other  cases,  it  will  be 
some  one  else,  or  the  neighbours  will  take  steps  to  save 
the  family.  But  without  some  aid  from  other  poor, 

1  Light  and  Shadows  in  the  Life  of  an  Artisan.     Coventry,  1893. 


288  MUTUAL  AID 

how   many   more   would   be   brought   every  year   to 
irreparable  ruin  ! 1 

Mr.  Plimsoll,  after  he  had  lived  for  some  time 
among  the  poor,  on  js.  6d.  a  week,  was  compelled  to 
recognize  that  the  kindly  feelings  he  took  with  him 
when  he  began  this  life  "  changed  into  hearty  respect 
and  admiration  "  when  he  saw  how  the  relations  be- 
tween the  poor  are  permeated  with  mutual  aid  and 
support,  and  learned  the  simple  ways  in  which  that 
support  is  given.  After  a  many  years'  experience,  his 
conclusion  was  that  "when  you  come  to  think  of  it, 
such  as  these  men  were,  so  were  the  vast  majority  of 
the  working  classes."2  As  to  bringing  up  orphans, 
even  by  the  poorest  families,  it  is  so  widely-spread  a 
habit,  that  it  may  be  described  as  a  general  rule  ;  thus 
among  the  miners  it  was  found,  after  the  two  explosions 
at  Warren  Vale  and  at  Lund  Hill,  that  "  nearly  one- 
third  of  the  men  killed,  as  the  respective  committees 

1  Many  rich   people  cannot   understand   how  the  very  poor  can 
help  each  other,  because  they  do  not  realize  upon  what  infinitesimal 
amounts  of  food  or  money  often  hangs  the  life  of  one  of  the  poorest 
classes.     Lord  Shaftesbury  had  understood  this  terrible  truth  when 
he  started  his  Flowers  and  Watercress   Girls'  Fund,  out  of  which 
loans  of  one  pound,  and  only  occasionally  two  pounds,  were  granted, 
to  enable  the  girls  to  buy  a  basket  and  flowers  when  the  winter  sets 
in  and  they  are  in  dire  distress.     The  loans  were  given  to  girls  who 
had  "  not  a  sixpence,"  but  never  failed  to  find  some  other  poor  to  go 
bail  for  them.     "  Of  all  the  movements  I  have  ever  been  connected 
with,"  Lord  Shaftesbury  wrote,  "  I  look  upon  this  Watercress  Girls' 
movement  as  the  most  successful.  ...  It  was  begun  in  1872,  and 
we  have  had  out  800  to  1,000  loans,  and  have  not  lost  5o/.  during 
the  whole  period.  .  .  .  What  has  been  lost — and  it  has  been  very 
little,  under  the  circumstances — has  been  by  reason  of  death  or  sick- 
ness, not  by  fraud  "  (The  Life  and  Work  of  the  Seventh  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury, by  Edwin  Hodder,  vol.  iii.  p.  322.    London,  1885-86).    Several 
more  facts  in  point  in  Ch.  Booth's  Life  and  Labour  in  London,  vol. 
i.  ;   in  Miss  Beatrice  Potter's  "  Pages  from  a  Work   Girl's   Diary " 
(Nineteenth  Century,  September  1888,  p.  310);  and  so  on. 

2  Samuel  Plimsoll,  Our  Seamen,  cheap  edition,  London,  1870,  p. 
no. 


MUTUAL   AID   AMONGST   OURSELVES      289 

can  testify,  were  thus  supporting  relations  other  than 
wife  and  child."  "  Have  you  reflected,"  Mr.  Plimsoll 
added,  "  what  this  is  ?  Rich  men,  even  comfortably- 
to-do  men  do  this,  I  don't  doubt.  But  consider  the 
difference."  Consider  what  a  surn  of  one  shilling,  sub- 
scribed by  each  worker  to  help  a  comrade's  widow,  or 
6d.  to  help  a  fellow-worker  to  defray  the  extra  expense 
of  a  funeral,  means  for  one  who  earns  i6s.  a  week  and 
has  a  wife,  and  in  some  cases  five  or  six  children  to 
support.1  But  such  subscriptions  are  a  general  practice 
among  the  workers  all  over  the  world,  even  in  much 
more  ordinary  cases  than  a  death  in  the  family,  while 
aid  in  work  is  the  commonest  thing  in  their  lives. 

Nor  do  the  same  practices  of  mutual  aid  and  support 
fail  among  the  richer  classes.  Of  course,  when  one 
thinks  of  the  harshness  which  is  often  shown  by  the 
richer  employers  towards  their  employees,  one  feels 
inclined  to  take  the  most  pessimist  view  of  human 
nature.  Many  must  remember  the  indignation  which 
was  aroused  during  the  great  Yorkshire  strike  of 
1894,  when  old  miners  who  had  picked  coal  from  an 
abandoned  pit  were  prosecuted  by  the  colliery  owners. 
And,  even  if  we  leave  aside  the  horrors  of  the  periods 

1  Our  Seamen,  u.s.,  p.  no.  Mr.  Plimsoll  added  :  "  I  don't  wish  to 
disparage  the  rich,  but  I  think  it  may  be  reasonably  doubted  whether 
these  qualities  are  so  fully  developed  in  them ;  for,  notwithstanding 
that  not  a  few  of  them  are  not  unacquainted  with  the  claims,  reason- 
able or  unreasonable,  of  poor  relatives,  these  qualities  are  not  in  such 
constant  exercise.  Riches  seem  in  so  many  cases  to  smother  the 
manliness  of  their  possessors,  and  their  sympathies  become,  not  so 
much  narrowed  as — so  to  speak — stratified  :  they  are  reserved  for 
the  sufferings  of  their  own  class,  and  also  the  woes  of  those  above 
them.  They  seldom  tend  downwards  much,  and  they  are  far  more 
likely  to  admire  an  act  of  courage  .  .  .  than  to  admire  the  constantly 
exercised  fortitude  and  the  tenderness  which  are  the  daily  characteristics 
of  a  British  workman's  life  " — and  of  the  workmen  all  over  the  world 
as  well. 

U 


290  MUTUAL  AID 

of  struggle  and  social  war,  such  as  the  extermination 
of  thousands  of  workers'  prisoners  after  the  fall  of  the 
Paris  Commune — who  can  read,  for  instance,  revela- 
tions of  the  labour  inquest  which  was  made  here  in 
the  forties,  or  what  Lord  Shaftesbury  wrote  about 
"  the  frightful  waste  of  human  life  in  the  factories,  to 
which  the  children  taken  from  the  workhouses,  or 
simply  purchased  all  over  this  country  to  be  sold  as 
factory  slaves,  were  consigned  " l — who  can  read  that 
without  being  vividly  impressed  by  the  baseness  which 
is  possible  in  man  when  his  greediness  is  at  stake  ? 
But  it  must  also  be  said  that  all  fault  for  such  treat- 
ment must  not  be  thrown  entirely  upon  the  criminality 
of  human  nature.  Were  not  the  teachings  of  men  of 
science,  and  even  of  a  notable  portion  of  the  clergy, 
up  to  a  quite  recent  time,  teachings  of  distrust,  despite 
and  almost  hatred  towards  the  poorer  classes?  Did 
not  science  teach  that  since  serfdom  has  been  abolished, 
no  one  need  be  poor  unless  for  his  own  vices  ?  And 
how  few  in  the  Church  had  the  courage  to  blame  the 
children-killers,  while  the  great  numbers  taught  that 
the  sufferings  of  the  poor,  and  even  the  slavery  of  the 
negroes,  were  part  of  the  Divine  Plan !  Was  not 
Nonconformism  itself  largely  a  popular  protest  against 
the  harsh  treatment  of  the  poor  at  the  hand  of  the 
Established  Church  ? 

With  such  spiritual  leaders,  the  feelings  of  the 
richer  classes  necessarily  became,  as  Mr.  Pimsoll 
remarked,  not  so  much  blunted  as  "  stratified."  They 
seldom  went  downwards  towards  the  poor,  from  whom 
the  well-to-do-people  are  separated  by>  their  manner  of 
life,  and  whom  they  do  not  kn&r,  -ander  their  best 

1  Life  of  the  Seventh  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  by  Edwin  Hodder,  vol. 
i.  pp.  137-138- 


MUTUAL  AID  AMONGST   OURSELVES      291 

aspects,  in  their  every-day  life.  But  among  themselves 
— allowance  beinof  made  for  the  effects  of  the  wealth- 

o 

accumulating  passions  and  the  futile  expenses  imposed 
by  wealth  itself — among  themselves,  in  the  circle  of 
family  and  friends,  the  rich  practise  the  same  mutual 
aid  and  support  as  the  poor.  Dr.  Ihering  and  L. 
Dargun  are  perfectly  right  in  saying  that  if  a  statistical 
record  could  be  taken  of  all  the  money  which  passes 
from  hand  to  hand  in  the  shape  of  friendly  loans  and 
aid,  the  sum  total  would  be  enormous,  even  in  com- 
parison with  the  commercial  transactions  of  the  world's 
trade.  And  if  we  could  add  to  it,  as  we  certainly 
ought  to,  what  is  spent  in  hospitality,  petty  mutual 
services,  the  management  of  other  people's  affairs, 
gifts  and  charities,  we  certainly  should  be  struck  by 
the  importance  of  such  transfers  in  national  economy. 
Even  in  the  world  which  is  ruled  by  commercial 
egotism,  the  current  expression,  "We  have  been 
harshly  treated  by  that  firm,"  shows  that  there  is  also 
the  friendly  treatment,  as  opposed  to  the  harsh,  i.e.  the 
legal  treatment ;  while  every  commercial  man  knows 
how  many  firms  are  saved  every  year  from  failure  by 
the  friendly  support  of  other  firms. 

As  to  the  charities  and  the  amounts  of  work  for 
general  well-being  which  are  voluntarily  done  by  so 
many  well-to-do  persons,  as  well  as  by  workers,  and 
especially  by  professional  men,  every  one  knows  the 
part  which  is  played  by  these  two  categories  of 
benevolence  in  modern  life.  If  the  desire  of  acquiring 
notoriety,  political  power,  or  social  distinction  often 
spoils  the  true  character  of  that  sort  of  benevolence, 
there  is  no  doubt  possible  as  to  the  impulse  coming  in 
the  majority  of  cases  from  the  same  mutual-aid  feel- 
ings. Men  who  have  acquired  wealth  very  often  do 


292  MUTUAL  AID 

not  find  in  it  the  expected  satisfaction.  Others  begin 
to  feel  that,  whatever  economists  may  say  about  wealth 
being  the  reward  of  capacity,  their  own  reward  is 
exaggerated.  The  conscience  of  human  solidarity 
begins  to  tell ;  and,  although  society  life  is  so  arranged 
as  to  stifle  that  feeling  by  thousands  of  artful  means,  it 
often  gets  the  upper  hand  ;  and  then  they  try  to  find 
an  outcome  for  that  deeply  human  need  by  giving 
their  fortune,  or  their  forces,  to  something  which,  in 
their  opinion,  will  promote  general  welfare. 

In  short,  neither  the  crushing  powers  of  the  central- 
ized State  nor  the  teachings  of  mutual  hatred  and  pitiless 
struggle  which  came,  adorned  with  the  attributes  of 
science,  from  obliging  philosophers  and  sociologists, 
could  weed  out  the  feeling  of  human  solidarity,  deeply 
lodged  in  men's  understanding  and  heart,  because  it 
has  been  nurtured  by  all  our  preceding  evolution. 
What  was  the  outcome  of  evolution  since  its  earliest 
stages  cannot  be  overpowered  by  one  of  the  aspects  of 
that  same  evolution.  And  the  need  of  mutual  aid  and 
support  which  had  lately  taken  refuge  in  the  narrow 
circle  of  the  family,  or  the  slum  neighbours,  in  the 
village,  or  the  secret  union  of  workers,  re-asserts  itself 
again,  even  in  our  modern  society,  and  claims  its  rights 
to  be,  as  it  always  has  been,  the  chief  leader  towards 
further  progress.  Such  are  the  conclusions  which  we 
are  necessarily  brought  to  when  we  carefully  ponder 
over  each  of  the  groups  of  facts  briefly  enumerated 
in  the  last  two  chapters. 


CONCLUSION 

IF  we  take  now  the  teachings  which  can  be  borrowed 
from  the  analysis  of  modern  society,  in  connection  with 
the  body  of  evidence  relative  to  the  importance  of 
mutual  aid  in  the  evolution  of  the  animal  world  and  of 
mankind,  we  may  sum  up  our  inquiry  as  follows. 

In  the  animal  world  we  have  seen  that  the  vast 
majority  of  species  live  in  societies,  and  that  they  find 
in  association  the  best  arms  for  the  struggle  for  life : 
understood,  of  course,  in  its  wide  Darwinian  sense — 
not  as  a  struggle  for  the  sheer  means  of  existence,  but 
as  a  struggle  against  all  natural  conditions  unfavour- 
able to  the  species.  The  animal  species,  in  which 
individual  struggle  has  been  reduced  to  its  narrowest 
limits,  and  the  practice  of  mutual  aid  has  attained  the 
greatest  development,  are  invariably  the  most  numerous, 
the  most  prosperous,  and  the  most  open  to  further 
progress.  The  mutual  protection  which  is  obtained 
in  this  case,  the  possibility  of  attaining  old  age  and 
of  accumulating  experience,  the  higher  intellectual 
development,  and  the  further  growth  of  sociable 
habits,  secure  the  maintenance  of  the  species,  its 
extension,  and  its  further  progressive  evolution.  The 
unsociable  species,  on  the  contrary,  are  doomed  to 
decay. 

Going  next  over  to  man,  we  found  him  living  in 
clans  and  tribes  at  the  very  dawn  of  the  stone  age ; 

293 


294  MUTUAL  AID 

we  saw  a  wide  series  of  social  institutions  developed 
already  in  the  lower  savage  stage,  in  the  clan  and  the 
tribe ;  and  we  found  that  the  earliest  tribal  customs 
and  habits  gave  to  mankind  the  embryo  of  all  the 
institutions  which  made  later  on  the  leading  aspects  of 
further  progress.  Out  of  the  savage  tribe  grew  up 
the  barbarian  village  community  ;  and  a  new,  still 
wider,  circle  of  social  customs,  habits,  and  institutions, 
numbers  of  which  are  still  alive  among  ourselves,  was 
developed  under  the  principles  of  common  possession 
of  a  given  territory  and  common  defence  of  it,  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  village  folkmote,  and  in  the 
federation  of  villages  belonging,  or  supposed  to  belong, 
to  one  stem.  And  when  new  requirements  induced 
men  to  make  a  new  start,  they  made  it  in  the  city, 
which  represented  a  double  network  of  territorial 
units  (village  communities),  connected  with  guilds — 
these  latter  arising  out  of  the  common  prosecution  of 
a  given  art  or  craft,  or  for  mutual  support  and  defence. 

And  finally,  in  the  last  two  chapters  facts  were 
produced  to  show  that  although  the  growth  of  the 
State  on  the  pattern  of  Imperial  Rome  had  put  a 
violent  end  to  all  mediaeval  institutions  for  mutual 
support,  this  new  aspect  of  civilization  could  not  last. 
The  State,  based  upon  loose  aggregations  of  individuals 
and  undertaking  to  be  their  only  bond  of  union,  did 
not  answer  its  purpose.  The  mutual-aid  tendency 
finally  broke  down  its  iron  rules  ;  it  reappeared  and 
reasserted  itself  in  an  infinity  of  associations  which 
now  tend  to  embrace  all  aspects  of  life  and  to  take 
possession  of  all  that  is  required  by  man  for  life  and 
for  reproducing  the  waste  occasioned  by  life. 

It  will  probably  be  remarked  that  mutual  aid,  even 
though  it  may  represent  one  of  the  factors  of  evolution, 


CONCLUSION  295 

covers  nevertheless  one  aspect  only  of  human  relations  ; 
that  by  the  side  of  this  current,  powerful  though  it 
may  be,  there  is,  and  always  has  been,  the  other 
current — the  self-assertion  of  the  individual,  not  only 
in  its  efforts  to  attain  personal  or  caste  superiority, 
economical,  political,  and  spiritual,  but  also  in  its  much 
more  important  although  less  evident  function  of 
breaking  through  the  bonds,  always  prone  to  become 
crystallized,  which  the  tribe,  the  village  community, 
the  city,  and  the  State  impose  upon  the  individual. 
In  other  words,  there  is  the  self-assertion  of  the 
individual  taken  as  a  progressive  element. 

It  is  evident  that  no  review  of  evolution  can  be 
complete,  unless  these  two  dominant  currents  are 
analyzed.  However,  the  self-assertion  of  the  individual 
or  of  groups  of  individuals,  their  struggles  for  superior- 
ity, and  the  conflicts  which  resulted  therefrom,  have 
already  been  analyzed,  described,  and  glorified  from 
time  immemorial.  In  fact,  up  to  the  present  time, 
this  current  alone  has  received  attention  from  the  epical 
poet,  the  annalist,  the  historian,  and  the  sociologist. 
History,  such  as  it  has  hitherto  been  written,  is  almost 
entirely  a  description  of  the  ways  and  means  by  which 
theocracy,  military  power,  autocracy,  and,  later  on,  the 
richer  classes'  rule  have  been  promoted,  established, 
and  maintained.  The  struggles  between  these  forces 
make,  in  fact,  the  substance  of  history.  We  may  thus 
take  the  knowledge  of  the  individual  factor  in  human 
history  as  granted — even  though  there  is  full  room  for 
a  new  study  of  the  subject  on  the  lines  just  alluded  to  ; 
while,  on  the  other  side,  the  mutual-aid  factor  has 
been  hitherto  totally  lost  sight  of;  it  was  simply 
denied,  or  even  scoffed  at,  by  the  writers  of  the  present 
and  past  generation.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to 


296  MUTUAL   AID 

show,  first  of  all,  the  immense  part  which  this  factor 
plays  in  the  evolution  of  both  the  animal  world  and 
human  societies.  Only  after  this  has  been  fully 
recognized  will  it  be  possible  to  proceed  to  a  comparison 
between  the  two  factors. 

To  make  even  a  rough  estimate  of  their  relative 
importance  by  any  method  more  or  less  statistical,  is 
evidently  impossible.  One  single  war — we  all  know 
— may  be  productive  of  more  evil,  immediate  and 
subsequent,  than  hundreds  of  years  of  the  unchecked 
action  of  the  mutual-aid  principle  may  be  productive 
of  good.  But  when  we  see  that  in  the  animal  world, 
progressive  development  and  mutual  aid  go  hand  in 
hand,  while  the  inner  struggle  within  the  species  is 
concomitant  with  retrogressive  development ;  when 
we  notice  that  with  man,  even  success  in  struggle  and 
war  is  proportionate  to  the  development  of  mutual  aid 
in  each  of  the  two  conflicting  nations,  cities,  parties,  or 
tribes,  and  that  in  the  process  of  evolution  war  itself 
(so  far  as  it  can  go  this  way)  has  been  made  subservient 
to  the  ends  of  progress  in  mutual  aid  within  the  nation, 
ihe  city  or  the  clan — we  already  obtain  a  perception  of 
the  dominating  influence  of  the  mutual-aid  factor  as  an 
element  of  progress.  But  we  see  also  that  the  practice 
of  mutual  aid  and  its  successive  developments  have 
created  the  very  conditions  of  society  life  in  which  man 
was  enabled  to  develop  his  arts,  knowledge,  and 
intelligence ;  and  that  the  periods  when  institutions 
based  on  the  mutual-aid  tendency  took  their  greatest 
development  were  also  the  periods  of  the  greatest 
progress  in  arts,  industry,  and  science.  In  fact,  the 
study  of  the  inner  life  of  the  mediaeval  city  and  of  the 
ancient  Greek  cities  reveals  the  fact  that  the  combina- 
tion of  mutual  aid,  as  it  was  practised  within  the  guild 


CONCLUSION  297 

and  the  Greek  clan,  with  a  large  initiative  which  was 
left  to  the  individual  and  the  group  by  means  of  the 
federative  principle,  gave  to  mankind  the  two  greatest 
periods  of  its  history — the  ancient  Greek  city  and  the 
mediaeval  city  periods  ;  while  the   ruin  of  the  above 
institutions  during  the  State  periods  of  history,  which 
followed,  corresponded  in  both  cases  to  a  rapid  decay. 
As  to  the  sudden  industrial  progress  which  has  been 
achieved  during  our  own  century,  and  which  is  usually 
ascribed  to  the  triumph  of  individualism  and  compe- 
tition, it  certainly  has  a  much  deeper  origin  than  that. 
Once   the  great  discoveries  of  the  fifteenth  century 
were   made,    especially   that   of  the   pressure   of  the 
atmosphere,    supported   by   a   series   of   advances   in 
natural   philosophy — and  they  were  made  under  the 
mediaeval    city  organization, — once   these   discoveries 
were  made,  the  invention  of  the  steam-motor,  and  all 
the  revolution  which  the  conquest  of  a  new  power 
implied,  had   necessarily  to   follow.      If  the  mediaeval 
cities  had  lived  to  bring  their  discoveries  to  that  point, 
the  ethical  consequences  of  the  revolution  effected  by 
steam  might  have  been  different ;  but  the  same  revolu- 
tion   in   technics  and  science  would   have   inevitably 
taken   place.     It   remains,  indeed,  an   open   question 
whether  the  general  decay  of  industries  which  followed 
the  ruin  of  the  free  cities,  and  was  especially  noticeable 
in  the  first  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  did  not  con- 
siderably retard  the  appearance  of  the  steam-engine  as 
well  as  the  consequent  revolution  in  arts.     When  we 
consider  the  astounding  rapidity  of  industrial  progress 
from  the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth  centuries — in  weaving, 
working  of  metals,  architecture   and  navigation,  and 
ponder  over  the  scientific  discoveries  which  that  indus- 
trial progress  led  to  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — 


298  MUTUAL  AID 

we  must  ask  ourselves  whether  mankind  was  not  delayed 
in  its  taking  full  advantage  of  these  conquests  when  a 
general  depression  of  arts  and  industries  took  place 
in  Europe  after  the  decay  of  mediaeval  civilization. 
Surely  it  was  not  the  disappearance  of  the  artist- 
artisan,  nor  the  ruin  of  large  cities  and  the  extinction 
of  intercourse  between  them,  which  could  favour  the 
industrial  revolution  ;  and  we  know  indeed  that  James 
Watt  spent  twenty  or  more  years  of  his  life  in  order  to 
render  his  invention  serviceable,  because  he  could  not 
find  in  the  last  century  what  he  would  have  readily 
found  in  mediaeval  Florence  or  Brugge,  that  is,  the 
artisans  capable  of  realizing  his  devices  in  metal,  and 
of  giving  them  the  artistic  finish  and  precision  which 
the  steam-engine  requires. 

To  attribute,  therefore,  the  industrial  progress  of 
our  century  to  the  war  of  each  against  all  which  it  has 
proclaimed,  is  to  reason  like  the  man  who,  knowing 
not  the  causes  of  rain,  attributes  it  to  the  victim  he 
has  immolated  before  his  clay  idol.  For  industrial 
progress,  as  for  each  other  conquest  over  nature, 
mutual  aid  and  close  intercourse  certainly  are,  as  they 
have  been,  much  more  advantageous  than  mutual 
struggle. 

However,  it  is  especially  in  the  domain  of  ethics 
that  the  dominating  importance  of  the  mutual-aid 
principle  appears  in  full.  That  mutual  aid  is  the  real 
foundation  of  our  ethical  conceptions  seems  evident 
enough.  But  whatever  the  opinions  as  to  the  first 
origin  of  the  mutual-aid  feeling  or  instinct  may  be — 
whether  a  biological  or  a  supernatural  cause  is  ascribed 
to  it — we  must  trace  its  existence  as  far  back  as  to  the 
lowest  stages  of  the  animal  world  ;  and  from  these 
stages  we  can  follow  its  uninterrupted  evolution,  in 


CONCLUSION  299 

opposition  to  a  number  of  contrary  agencies,  through 
all  degrees  of  human  development,  up  to  the  present 
times.  Even  the  new  religions  which  were  born  from 
time  to  time — always  at  epochs  when  the  mutual-aid 
principle  was  falling  into  decay  in  the  theocracies  and 
despotic  States  of  the  East,  or  at  the  decline  of  the 
Roman  Empire — even  the  new  religions  have  only 
reaffirmed  that  same  principle.  They  found  their  first 
supporters  among  the  humble,  in  the  lowest,  down- 
trodden layers  of  society,  where  the  mutual-aid  principle 
is  the  necessary  foundation  of  every-day  life  ;  and  the 
new  forms  of  union  which  were  introduced  in  the 
earliest  Buddhist  and  Christian  communities,  in  the 
Moravian  brotherhoods  and  so  on,  took  the  character 
of  a  return  to  the  best  aspects  of  mutual  aid  in  early 
tribal  life. 

Each  time,  however,  that  an  attempt  to  return  to 
this  old  principle  was  made,  its  fundamental  idea  itself 
was  widened.  From  the  clan  it  was  extended  to  the 
stem,  to  the  federation  of  stems,  to  the  nation,  and 
finally — in  ideal,  at  least — to  the  whole  of  mankind. 
It  was  also  refined  at  the  same  time.  In  primitive 
Buddhism,  in  primitive  Christianity,  in  the  writings  of 
some  of  the  Mussulman  teachers,  in  the  early  move- 
ments of  the  Reform,  and  especially  in  the  ethical  and 
philosophical  movements  of  the  last  century  and  of 
our  own  times,  the  total  abandonment  of  the  idea  of 
revenge,  or  of  "  due  reward  " — of  good  for  good  and 
evil  for  evil — is  affirmed  more  and  more  vigorously. 
The  higher  conception  of  "  no  revenge  for  wrongs," 
and  of  freely  giving  more  than  one  expects  to  receive 
from  his  neighbours,  is  proclaimed  as  being  the  real 
principle  of  morality — a  principle  superior  to  mere 
equivalence,  equity,  or  justice,  and  more  conducive  to 


300  MUTUAL  AID 

happiness.  And  man  is  appealed  to  to  be  guided  in  his 
acts,  not  merely  by  love,  which  is  always  personal,  or 
at  the  best  tribal,  but  by  the  perception  of  his  oneness 
with  each  human  being.  In  the  practice  of  mutual 
aid,  which  we  can  retrace  to  the  earliest  beginnings  of 
evolution,  we  thus  find  the  positive  and  undoubted 
origin  of  our  ethical  conceptions  ;  and  we  can  affirm 
that  in  the  ethical  progress  of  man,  mutual  support — 
not  mutual  struggle — has  had  the  leading  part.  In  its 
wide  extension,  even  at  the  present  time,  we  also  see 
the  best  guarantee  of  a  still  loftier  evolution  of  our 
race. 


APPENDIX 

I. SWARMS    OF    BUTTERFLIES,    DRAGON-FLIES,    ETC. 

(To  p.    10.) 

M.  C.  PIEPERS  has  published  in  Natimrktmding 
Tijdschrift  voor  Neederlandsch  Indie,  1891,  Deel  L. 
p.  198  (analyzed  in  Naturwissenschaftliche  Rundschau, 
1891,  vol.  vi.  p.  573),  interesting  researches  into  the 
mass-flights  of  butterflies  which  occur  in  Dutch  East 
India,  seemingly  under  the  influence  of  great  draughts 
occasioned  by  the  west  monsoon.  Such  mass-flights 
usually  take  place  in  the  first  months  after  the  begin- 
ning of  the  monsoon,  and  it  is  usually  individuals  of 
both  sexes  of  Catopsilia(Callidryas]  crocale,  Cr.,  which 
join  in  it,  but  occasionally  the  swarms  consist  of  indi- 
viduals belonging  to  three  different  species  of  the 
genus  Euphcea.  Copulation  seems  also  to  be  the 
purpose  of  such  flights.  That  these  flights  are  not 
the  result  of  concerted  action  but  rather  a  consequence 
of  imitation,  or  of  a  desire  of  following  all  others,  is, 
of  course,  quite  possible. 

Bates  saw,  on  the  Amazon,  the  yellow  and  the 
orange  Callidryas  "  assembling  in  densely  packed 
masses,  sometimes  two  or  three  yards  in  circumference, 
their  wings  all  held  in  an  upright  position,  so  that  the 
beach  looked  as  though  variegated  with  beds  of 
crocuses."  Their  migrating  columns,  crossing  the  river 
from  north  to  south,  "  were  uninterrupted,  from  an 
early  hour  in  the  morning  till  sunset "  (Naturalist  on 
the  Amazon^.  131). 

301 


302  MUTUAL  AID 

Dragon-flies,  in  their  long  migrations  across  the 
Pampas,  come  together  in  countless  numbers,  and 
their  immense  swarms  contain  individuals  belonging  to 
different  species  (Hudson,  Naturalist  on  the  La  Plata, 
pp.  130^.). 

The  grasshoppers  (Zoniopoda  tarsata]  are  also 
eminently  gregarious  (Hudson,  /.  c.  p.  125). 


II. THE   ANTS. 

(To  p.  I3.) 

Pierre  Huber's  Les  fourmis  indigenes  (Geneve, 
1810),  of  which  a  cheap  edition  was  issued  in  1861  by 
Cherbuliez,  in  the  Bibliotheque  Genevoise,  and  of  which 
translations  ought  to  be  circulated  in  cheap  editions 
in  every  language,  is  not  only  the  best  work  on  the 
subject,  but  also  a  model  of  really  scientific  research. 
Darwin  was  quite  right  in  describing  Pierre  Huber  as 
an  even  greater  naturalist  than  his  father.  This  book 
ought  to  be  read  by  every  young  naturalist,  not  only 
for  the  facts  it  contains  but  as  a  lesson  in  the  methods 
of  research.  The  rearing  of  ants  in  artificial  glass 
nests,  and  the  test  experiments  made  by  subsequent 
explorers,  including  Lubbock,  will  all  be  found  in 
Huber's  admirable  little  work.  Readers  of  the  books 
of  Forel  and  Lubbock  are,  of  course,  aware  that  both 
the  Swiss  professor  and  the  British  writer  began  their 
work  in  a  critical  mood,  with  the  intention  of  disproving 
Huber's  assertions  concerning  the  admirable  mutual- 
aid  instincts  of  the  ants ;  but  that  after  a  careful 
investigation  they  could  only  confirm  them.  However, 
it  is  unfortunately  characteristic  of  human  nature  gladly 
to  believe  any  affirmation  concerning  men  being  able 
to  change  at  will  the  action  of  the  forces  of  Nature,  but 


APPENDIX  303 

to  refuse  to  admit  well-proved  scientific  facts  tending 
to  reduce  the  distance  between  man  and  his  animal 
brothers. 

Mr.  Sutherland  (Origin  and  Growth  of  Moral 
Instinct]  evidently  began  his  book  with  the  intention 
of  proving  that  all  moral  feelings  have  originated  from 
parental  care  and  familial  love,  which  both  appeared 
only  in  warm-blooded  animals ;  consequently  he  tries 
to  minimize  the  importance  of  sympathy  and  co-opera- 
tion among  ants.  He  quotes  Biichner's  book,  Mind 
in  Animals,  and  knows  Lubbock's  experiments.  As 
to  the  works  of  Huber  and  Forel,  he  dismisses  them 
in  the  following  sentence ;  "  but  they  [Biichner's  in- 
stances of  sympathy  among  ants]  are  all,  or  mostly  all, 
marred  by  a  certain  air  of  sentimentalism  .  .  .  which 
renders  them  better  suited  for  school  books  than  for 
cautious  works  of  science,  and  the  same  is  to  be  remarked 
[italics  are  mine]  of  some  of  Huber's  and  Forel's  best- 
known  anecdotes  "  (vol.  i.  p.  298). 

Mr.  Sutherland  does  not  specify  which  "  anecdotes" 
he  means,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  he  could  never  have 
had  the  opportunity  of  perusing  the  works  of  Huber 
and  Forel.  Naturalists  who  know  these  works  find 
no  "  anecdotes  "  in  them. 

The  recent  work  of  Professor  Gottfried  Adlerz  on 
the  ants  in  Sweden,  Myrmecologiska  Studier :  Svenska 
Myror  och  des  Lefnadsfb'rhdllanden  (Bihang  till  Sven- 
ska Akademiens  Handlingar,  Bd.  xi.  No.  18,  1886), 
may  be  mentioned  in  this  place.  It  hardly  need  be 
said  that  all  the  observations  of  Huber  and  Forel 
concerning  the  mutual-aid  life  of  ants,  including  the 
one  concerning  the  sharing  of  food,  felt  to  be  so  striking 
by  those  who  previously  had  paid  no  attention  to  the 
subject,  are  fully  confirmed  by  the  Swedish  professor 
(pp.  136-137). 

Professor  G.  Adlerz  gives  also  very  interesting 
experiments  to  prove  what  Huber  had  already  observed ; 
namely,  that  ants  from  two  different  nests  do  not 


304  MUTUAL  AID 

always  attack  each  other.  He  has  made  one  of  his 
experiments  with  the  ant,  Tapinoma  erraticum. 
Another  was  made  with  the  common  Rufa  ant. 
Taking  a  whole  nest  in  a  sack,  he  emptied  it  at  a 
distance  of  six  feet  from  another  nest.  There  was  no 
battle,  but  the  ants  of  the  second  nest  began  to  carry 
the  pupae  of  the  former.  As  a  rule,  when  Professor 
Adlerz  brought  together  workers  with  their  pupae, 
both  taken  from  different  nests,  there  was  no  battle  ; 
but  if  the  workers  were  without  their  pupae,  a  battle 
ensued  (pp.  185-186). 

He  also  completes  Forel's  and  MacCook's  observa- 
tions about  the  "nations"  of  ants,  composed  of  many 
nests,  and,  taking  his  own  estimates,  which  brought 
him  to  take  an  average  of  300,000  Formica  exsecta 
ants  in  each  nest,  he  concludes  that  such  "  nations  " 
may  reach  scores  and  even  hundreds  of  millions  of 
inhabitants. 

Maeterlinck's  admirably  written  book  on  bees, 
although  it  contains  no  new  observations,  would  be 
very  useful,  if  it  were  less  marred  with  metaphysical 
"  words." 


III. NESTING   ASSOCIATIONS. 

(To  p.  35.) 

Audubon's  Journals  (Audubon  and  his  Journals, 
New  York,  1898),  especially  those  relating  to  his  life 
on  the  coasts  of  Labrador  and  the  St.  Lawrence  river 
in  the  thirties,  contain  excellent  descriptions  of  the 
nesting  associations  of  aquatic  birds.  Speaking  of 
"  The  Rock,"  one  of  the  Magdalene  or  Amherst 
Islands,  he  wrote  : — "  At  eleven  I  could  distinguish  its 
top  plainly  from  the  deck,  and  thought  it  covered  with 
snow  to  the  depth  of  several  feet ;  this  appearance 


APPENDIX  305 

existed  on  every  portion  of  the  flat,  projecting  shelves." 
But  it  was  not  snow:  it  was  gannets,  all  calmly  seated 
on  their  eggs  or  newly-hatched  brood — their  heads  all 
turned  windwards,  almost  touching  each  other,  and  in 
regular  lines.  The  air  above,  for  a  hundred  yards  and 
for  some  distance  round  the  rock,  "  was  filled  with 
gannets  on  the  wing,  as  if  a  heavy  fall  of  snow  was 
directly  above  us."  Kittiwake  gulls  and  foolish 
guillemots  bred  on  the  same  rock  (Journals,  vol.  i.  pp. 
360-363). 

In  sight  of  Anticosti  Island,  the  sea  "  was  literally 
covered  with  foolish  guillemots  and  with  razor- 
billed  auks  (Alca  torva}"  Further  on,  the  air  was 
filled  with  velvet  ducks.  On  the  rocks  of  the  Gulf, 
the  herring  gulls,  the  terns  (great,  Arctic,  and 
probably  Foster's),  the  Tringa  pusilla,  the  sea-gulls, 
the  auks,  the  Scoter  ducks,  the  wild  geese  (Anser 
canadensis],  the  red-breasted  merganser,  the  cormor- 
ants, etc.,  were  all  breeding.  The  sea-gulls  were 
extremely  abundant  there  ;  "  they  are  for  ever  harass- 
ing every  other  bird,  sucking  their  eggs  and  devouring 
their  young;"  "they  take  here  the  place  of  eagles 
and  hawks." 

On  the  Missouri,  above  Saint  Louis,  Audubon  saw, 
in  1843,  vultures  and  eagles  nesting  in  colonies.  Thus 
he  mentioned  "  long  lines  of  elevated  shore,  surmounted 
by  stupendous  rocks  of  limestone,  with  many  curious 
holes  in  them,  where  we  saw  vultures  and  eagles 
enter  towards  dusk "  —  that  is,  Turkey  buzzards 
(Cathartes  aitra)  and  bald  eagles  (Haliaetus  leuco- 
cephalus),  E.  Coue's  remarks  in  a  footnote  (vol.  i.  p. 

458). 

One  of  the  best  breeding-grounds  along  the  British 
shores  are  the  Fame  Islands,  and  one  will  find  in 
Charles  Dixon's  work,  Among  the  Birds  in  Northern 
Shires,  a  lively  description  of  these  grounds,  where 
scores  of  thousands  of  gulls,  terns,  eider-ducks,  cor- 
morants, ringed  plovers,  oyster-catchers,  guillemots, 

x 


306  MUTUAL  AID 

and  puffins  come  together  every  year.  "  On  approach- 
ing some  of  the  islands  the  first  impression  is  that 
this  gull  (the  lesser  black-backed  gull)  monopolizes 
the  whole  of  the  ground,  as  it  occurs  in  such  vast 
abundance.  The  air  seems  full  of  them,  the  ground 
and  bare  rocks  are  crowded  ;  and  as  our  boat  finally 
grates  against  the  rough  beach  and  we  eagerly  jump 
ashore  all  becomes  noisy  excitement — a  perfect  babel 
of  protesting  cries  that  is  persistently  kept  up  until 
we  leave  the  place"  (p.  219). 


IV. SOCIABILITY   OF   ANIMALS. 

(To  p.  42.) 

That  the  sociability  of  animals  was  greater  when 
they  were  less  hunted  by  man,  is  confirmed  by  many 
facts  showing  that  those  animals  who  now  live  isolated 
in  countries  inhabited  by  man  continue  to  live  in  herds 
in  uninhabited  regions.  Thus  on  the  waterless  plateau 
fdeserts  of  Northern  Thibet  Prjevalsky  found  bears 
living  in  societies.  He  mentions  numerous  "  herds  of 
yaks,  khulans,  antelopes,  and  even  bears."  The  latter, 
he  says,  feed  upon  the  extremely  numerous  small 
rodents,  and  are  so  numerous  that,  "  as  the  natives 
assured  me,  they  have  found  a  hundred  or  a  hundred 
and  fifty  of  them  asleep  in  the  same  cave "  ( Yearly 
Report  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society  for  1885, 
p.  ii  ;  Russian).  Hares  (Lepus  Lehmani)  live  in 
large  societies  in  the  Transcaspian  territory  (N.  Zaru- 
dnyi,  Recherches  zoologiques  dans  la  contrite  Trans- 
caspienne,  mBull.  Soc.  Natur.  Moscou,  1889,  4).  The 
small  Californian  foxes,  who,  according  to  E.  S. 
H olden,  live  round  the  Lick  observatory  "on  a  mixed 
diet  of  Manzanita  berries  and  astronomers'  chickens  " 


APPENDIX  307 

(Nature,  Nov.  5,  1891),  seem  also  to  be  very  soci- 
able. 

Some  very  interesting  instances  of  the  love  of 
society  among  animals  have  lately  been  given  by  Mr. 
C.  J.  Cornish  (Animals  at  Work  and  Play,  London, 
1896).  All  animals,  he  truly  remarks,  hate  solitude. 
He  gives  also  an  amusing  instance  of  the  habit  of  the 
prairie  dogs  of  keeping  sentries.  It  is  so  great  that 
they  always  keep  a  sentinel  on  duty,  even  at  the 
London  Zoological  Garden,  and  in  the  Paris  Jardin 
d'Acclimatation  (p.  46). 

Professor  Kessler  was  quite  right  in  pointing  out 
that  the  young  broods  of  birds,  keeping  together  in 
autumn,  contribute  to  the  development  of  feelings  of 
sociability.  Mr.  Cornish  (Animals  at  Work  and  Play) 
has  given  several  examples  of  the  plays  of  young 
mammals,  such  as,  for  instance,  lambs  playing  at 
"  follow  my  leader,"  or  at  "  I'm  the  king  of  the  castle," 
and  their  love  of  steeplechases  ;  also  the  fawns  playing 
a  kind  of  "  cross-touch,"  the  touch  being  given  by  the 
nose.  We  have,  moreover,  the  excellent  work  by 
Karl  Gross,  The  Play  of  Animals. 


V. — CHECKS   TO   OVER-MULTIPLICATION. 
(To  p.   72.) 

Hudson,  in  his  Naturalist  on  the  La  Plata 
(Chapter  III.),  has  a  very  interesting  account  of  a 
sudden  increase  of  a  species  of  mice  and  of  the 
consequences  of  that  sudden  "  wave  of  life." 

"  In  the  summer  of  1872-73,"  he  writes,  "we  had 
plenty  of  sunshine,  with  frequent  showers,  so  that  the 
hot  months  brought  no  dearth  of  wild  flowers,  as  in 
most  years."  The  season  was  very  favourable  for 


3o8  MUTUAL  AID 

mice,  and  "these  prolific  little  creatures  were  soon 
so  abundant  that  the  dogs  and  the  cats  subsisted 
almost  exclusively  on  them.  Foxes,  weasels  and 
opossums  fared  sumptuously ;  even  the  insectivorous 
armadillo  took  to  mice-hunting."  The  fowls  became 
quite  rapacious,  "  while  the  sulphur  tyrant-birds 
(Pitangus)  and  the  Guira  cuckoos  preyed  on  nothing 
but  mice."  In  the  autumn,  countless  numbers  of 
storks  and  of  short-eared  owls  made  their  appear- 
ance, coming  also  to  assist  at  the  general  feast. 
Next  came  a  winter  of  continued  drought ;  the  dry 
grass  was  eaten,  or  turned  to  dust ;  and  the  mice, 
deprived  of  cover  and  food,  began  to  die  out.  The 
cats  sneaked  back  to  the  houses ;  the  short-eared 
owls — a  wandering  species — left ;  while  the  little 
burrowing  owls  became  so  reduced  as  scarcely  to 
be  able  to  fly,  "  and  hung  about  the  houses  all  day 
long  on  the  look-out  for  some  stray  morsel  of  food." 
Incredible  numbers  of  sheep  and  cattle  perished  the 
same  winter,  during  a  month  of  cold  that  followed 
the  drought.  As  to  the  mice,  Hudson  makes  the 
remark  that  "  scarcely  a  hard-pressed  remnant  remains 
after  the  great  reaction,  to  continue  the  species." 

This  illustration  has  an  additional  interest  in  its 
showing  how,  on  flat  plains  and  plateaus,  the  sudden 
increase  of  a  species  immediately  attracts  enemies 
from  other  parts  of  the  plains,  and  how  species  unpro- 
tected by  their  social  organization  must  necessarily 
succumb  before  them. 

Another  excellent  illustration  in  point  is  given 
by  the  same  author  from  the  Argentine  Republic. 
The  coypu  (Myopotamus  coypu]  is  there  a  very  com- 
mon rodent — a  rat  in  shape,  but  as  large  as  an  otter. 
It  is  aquatic  in  its  habits  and  very  sociable.  "  Of  an 
evening,"  Hudson  writes,  "they  are  all  out  swimming 
and  playing  in  the  water,  conversing  together  in 
strange  tunes,  which  sound  like  the  moans  and  cries 
of  wounded  and  suffering  men.  The  coypu,  which 


APPENDIX  309 

has  a  fine  fur  under  the  long  coarse  hair,  was  largely 
exported  to  Europe  ;  but  some  sixty  years  ago  the 
Dictator  Rosas  issued  a  decree  prohibiting  the  hunt- 
ing of  this  animal.  The  result  was  that  the  animals 
increased  and  multiplied  exceedingly,  and,  abandon- 
ing their  aquatic  habits,  they  became  terrestrial  and 
migratory,  and  swarmed  everywhere  in  search  of  food. 
Suddenly  a  mysterious  malady  fell  on  them,  from 
which  they  quickly  perished,  and  became  almost 
extinct"  (p.  12). 

Extermination  by  man  on  the  one  side,  and  con- 
tagious diseases  on  the  other  side,  are  thus  the  main 
checks  which  keep  the  species  down — not  competition 
for  the  means  of  existence,  which  may  not  exist  at 
all. 

Facts,  proving  that  regions  enjoying  a  far  more 
congenial  climate  than  Siberia  are  equally  under- 
populated, could  be  produced  in  numbers.  But  in 
Bates'  well-known  work  we  find  the  same  remark 
concerning  even  the  shores  of  the  Amazon  river. 

"  There  is,  in  fact,"  Bates  wrote,  "  a  great  variety 
of  mammals,  birds  and  reptiles,  but  they  are  widely 
scattered  and  all  excessively  shy  of  man.  The  region 
is  so  extensive  and  uniform  in  the  forest-clothing  of 
its  surface,  that  it  is  only  at  long  intervals  that 
animals  are  seen  in  abundance,  where  some  particu- 
lar spot  is  found  which  is  more  attractive  than  the 
others"  (Naturalist  on  the  Amazon,  6th  ed.,  p.  31). 

This  fact  is  the  more  striking  as  the  Brazilian  fauna, 
which  is  poor  in  mammals,  is  not  poor  at  all  in  birds, 
and  the  Brazilian  forests  afford  ample  food  for  birds, 
as  may  be  seen  from  a  quotation,  already  given  on  a 
previous  page,  about  birds'  societies.  And  yet,  the  forests 
of  Brazil,  like  those  of  Asia  and  Africa,  are  not  over- 
populated,  but  rather  under-populated.  The  same  is 
true  concerning  the  pampas  of  South  America,  about 
which  W.  H.  Hudson  remarks  that  it  is  really  astonish- 
ing that  only  one  small  ruminant  should  be  found  on 


3io  MUTUAL   AID 

this  immense  grassy  area,  so  admirably  suited  to 
herbivorous  quadrupeds.  Millions  of  sheep,  cattle 
and  horses,  introduced  by  man,  graze  now,  as  is  known, 
upon  a  portion  of  these  prairies.  Land-birds  on  the 
pampas  are  also  few  in  species  and  in  numbers. 


VI. ADAPTATIONS    TO   AVOID    COMPETITION. 

(To  p.  75-) 

Numerous  examples  of  such  adaptations  can  be 
found  in  the  works  of  all  field-naturalists.  One  of 
them,  very  interesting,  may  be  given  in  the  hairy 
armadillo,  of  which  W.  H.  Hudson  says,  that  "  it  has 
struck  a  line  for  itself,  and  consequently  thrives, 
while  its  congeners  are  fast  disappearing.  Its  food  is 
most  varied.  It  preys  on  all  kinds  of  insects,  dis- 
covering worms  and  larvae  several  inches  beneath  the 
surface.  It  is  fond  of  eggs  and  fledglings  ;  it  feeds 
on  carrion  as  readily  as  a  vulture ;  and,  failing  animal 
food,  it  subsists  on  vegetable  diet — clover,  and  even 
grains  of  maize.  Therefore,  when  other  animals  are 
starving,  the  hairy  armadillo  is  always  fat  and 
vigorous"  (Naturalist  on  the  La  Plata,  p.  71). 

The  adaptivity  of  the  lapwing  makes  it  a  species 
of  which  the  range  of  extension  is  very  wide.  In 
England,  it  "  makes  itself  at  home  on  arable  land  as 
readily  as  in  wilder  areas."  Ch.  Dixon  says  in  his 
Birds  of  Northern  Shires  (p.  67),  "Variety  of  food 
is  still  more  the  rule  with  the  birds  of  prey."  Thus, 
for  instance,  we  learn  from  the  same  author  (pp.  60, 
65),  "  that  the  hen  harrier  of  the  British  moors  feeds 
not  only  on  small  birds,  but  also  on  moles  and  mice, 
and  on  frogs,  lizards  and  insects,  while  most  of  the 
smaller  falcons  subsist  largely  on  insects." 


APPENDIX  311 

The  very  suggestive  chapter  which  W.  H.  Hudson 
gives  to  the  family  of  the  South  American  tree- 
creepers,  or  woodhevvers,  is  another  excellent  illus- 
tration of  the  ways  in  which  large  portions  of  the 
animal  population  avoid  competition,  while  at  the 
same  time  they  succeed  in  becoming  very  numerous 
in  a  given  region,  without  being  possessed  of  any  of 
the  weapons  usually  considered  as  essential  in  the 
struggle  for  existence.  The  above  family  covers  an 
immense  range,  from  South  Mexico  to  Patagonia, 
and  no  fewer  than  290  species,  referable  to  about 
46  genera,  are  already  known  from  this  family,  the 
most  striking  feature  of  which  is  the  great  diversity 
of  habits  of  its  members.  Not  only  the  different 
genera  and  the  different  species  possess  habits  pecu- 
liarly their  own,  but  even  the  same  species  is  often 
found  to  differ  in  its  manner  of  life  in  different  localities. 
"Some  species  of  Xenops  and  Magarornis,  like  wood- 
peckers, climb  vertically  on  tree-trunks  in  search  of 
insect  prey,  but  also,  like  tits,  explore  the  smaller 
twigs  and  foliage  at  the  extremity  of  the  branches ; 
so  that  the  whole  tree,  from  the  root  to  its  topmost 
foliage,  is  hunted  over  by  them.  The  Sclerurus, 
although  an  inhabitant  of  the  darkest  forest,  and  pro- 
vided with  sharply-curved  claws,  never  seeks  its  food 
on  trees,  but  exclusively  on  the  ground,  among  the 
decaying  fallen  leaves  ;  but,  strangely  enough,  when 
alarmed,  it  flies  to  the  trunk  of  the  nearest  tree,  to 
which  it  clings  in  a  vertical  position,  and,  remaining 
silent  and  motionless,  escapes  observation  by  means 
of  its  dark  protective  colour."  And  so  on.  In  their 
nesting  habits  they  also  vary  immensely.  Thus,  in 
one  single  genus,  three  species  build  an  oven-shaped 
clay-nest,  a  fourth  builds  a  nest  of  sticks  in  the  trees, 
and  a  fifth  burrows  in  the  side  of  a  bank,  like  a 
kingfisher. 

Now,  this  extremely  large  family,  of  which  Hudson 
says  that  "  every  portion  of  the  South  American  con- 


312  MUTUAL  AID 

tinent  is  occupied  by  them  ;  for  there  is  really  no 
climate,  and  no  kind  of  soil  or  vegetation,  which  does 
not  possess  its  appropriate  species,  belongs" — to  use 
his  own  words — "  to  the  most  defenceless  of  birds." 
Like  the  ducks  which  were  mentioned  by  Syevertsoff 
(see  in  the  text),  they  display  no  powerful  beak  or 
claws  ;  "  they  are  timid,  unresisting  creatures,  with- 
out strength  or  weapons ;  their  movements  are  less 
quick  and  vigorous  than  those  of  other  kinds,  and 
their  flight  is  exceedingly  feeble."  But  they  possess — 
both  Hudson  and  Asara  observe — "  the  social  dis- 
position in  an  eminent  degree,"  although  "the  social 
habit  is  kept  down  in  them  by  the  conditions  of  a  life 
which  makes  solitude  necessary."  They  cannot  make 
those  large  breeding  associations  which  we  see  in  the 
sea-birds,  because  they  live  on  the  tree-insects,  and  they, 
must  carefully  explore  separately  every  tree — which 
they  do  in  a  most  business-like  way ;  but  they  con- 
tinually call  each  other  in  the  woods,  "  conversing 
with  one  another  over  long  distances ; "  and  they 
associate  in  those  "  wandering  bands "  which  are 
well  known  from  Bates'  picturesque  description,  while 
Hudson  was  led  to  believe  "  that  everywhere  in 
South  America  the  Dendrocolaptidse  are  the  first 
in  combining  to  act  in  concert,  and  that  the  birds  of 
other  families  follow  their  march  and  associate  with 
them,  knowing  from  experience  that  a  rich  harvest 
may  be  reaped."  It  hardly  need  be  added  that 
Hudson  pays  them  also  a  high  compliment  concern- 
ing their  intelligence.  Sociability  and  intelligence 
always  go  hand  in  hand. 


APPENDIX  313 


VII. THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   FAMILY. 

(To  p.  86.) 

At  the  time  when  I  wrote  the  chapter  inserted  in 
the  text,  a  certain  accord  seemed  to  have  been 
established  amongst  anthropologists  concerning  the 
relatively  late  appearance,  in  the  institutions  of  men, 
of  the  patriarchal  family,  such  as  we  know  it  among 
the  Hebrews,  or  in  Imperial  Rome.  However,  works 
have  been  published  since,  in  which  the  ideas  pro- 
mulgated by  Bachofen  and  MacLennan,  systematized 
especially  by  Morgan,  and  further  developed  and 
confirmed  by  Post,  Maxim  Kovalevsky,  and  Lubbock, 
were  contested — the  most  important  of  such  works 
being  by  the  Danish  Professor,  C.  N.  Starcke 
(Primitive  Family ',  1889),  and  by  the  Helsingfors 
Professor,  Edward  Westermarck  (The  History  of 
Human  Marriage,  1891  ;  2nd  ed.  1894).  The  same 
has  happened  with  this  question  of  primitive  marriage 
institutions  as  it  happened  with  the  question  of  the 
primitive  land-ownership  institutions.  When  the  ideas 
of  Maurer  and  Nasse  on  the  village  community,  de- 
veloped by  quite  a  school  of  gifted  explorers,  and 
those  of  all  modern  anthropologists  upon  the  primi- 
tively communistic  constitution  of  the  clan  had 
nearly  won  general  acceptance — they  called  forth  the 
appearance  of  such  works  as  those  of  Fustel  de 
Coulanges  in  France,  Frederic  Seebohm  in  England, 
and  several  others,  in  which  an  attempt  was  made 
— with  more  brilliancy  than  real  depth  of  investiga- 
tion— to  undermine  these  ideas  and  to  cast  a  doubt 
upon  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  modern  research 
(see  Prof.  Vinogradov's  Preface  to  his  remarkable 
work,  Villainage  in  England).  Similarly,  when  the 
ideas  about  the  non-existence  of  the  family  at  the 
early  tribal  stage  of  mankind  began  to  be  accepted 


314  MUTUAL   AID 

by  most  anthropologists  and  students  of  ancient  law, 
they  necessarily  called  forth  such  works  as  those  of 
Starcke  and  Westermarck,  in  which  man  was  repre- 
sented, in  accordance  with  the  Hebrew  tradition,  as 
having  started  with  the  family,  evidently  patriarchal, 
and  never  having  passed  through  the  stages  described 
by  MacLennan,  Bachofen,  or  Morgan.  These  works, 
of  which  the  brilliantly-written  History  of  Human 
Marriage  has  especially  been  widely  read,  have  un- 
doubtedly produced  a  certain  effect :  those  who  have 
not  had  the  opportunity  of  reading  the  bulky  volumes 
related  to  the  controversy  became  hesitating ;  while 
some  anthropologists,  well  acquainted  with  the  matter, 
like  the  French  Professor  Durkheim,  took  a  con- 
ciliatory, but  somewhat  undefined  attitude. 

For  the  special  purpose  of  a  work  on  Mutual  Aid, 
this  controversy  may  be  irrelevant.  The  fact  that 
men  have  lived  in  tribes  from  the  earliest  stages  of 
mankind,  is  not  contested,  even  by  those  who  feel 
shocked  at  the  idea  that  man  may  have  passed  through 
a  stage  when  the  family  as  we  understand  it  did  not 
exist.  The  subject,  however,  has  its  own  interest  and 
deserves  to  be  mentioned,  although  it  must  be  re- 
marked that  a  volume  would  be  required  to  do  it  full 
justice. 

When  we  labour  to  lift  the  veil  that  conceals  from 
us  ancient  institutions,  and  especially  such  institutions 
as  have  prevailed  at  the  first  appearance  of  beings  of 
the  human  type,  we  are  bound — in  the  necessary 
absence  of  direct  testimony — to  accomplish  a  most 
painstaking  work  of  tracing  backwards  every  institu- 
tion, carefully  noting  even  its  faintest  traces  in  habits, 
customs,  traditions,  songs,  folk-lore,  and  so  on ;  and 
then,  combining  the  separate  results  of  each  of  these 
separate  studies,  to  mentally  reconstitute  the  society 
which  would  answer  to  the  co-existence  of  all  these 
institutions.  One  can  consequently  understand  what 
a  formidable  array  of  facts,  and  what  a  vast  number 


APPENDIX  315 

of  minute  studies  of  particular  points  is  required  to 
come  to  any  safe  conclusion.  This  is  exactly  what 
one  finds  in  the  monumental  work  of  Bachofen  and 
his  followers,  but  fails  to  find  in  the  works  of  the 
other  school.  The  mass  of  facts  ransacked  by  Prof. 
Westermarck  is  undoubtedly  great  enough,  and  his 
work  is  certainly  very  valuable  as  a  criticism ;  but  it 
hardly  will  induce  those  who  know  the  works  of 
Bachofen,  Morgan,  MacLennan,  Post,  Kovalevsky, 
etc.,  in  the  originals,  and  are  acquainted  with  the 
village-community  school,  to  change  their  opinions 
and  accept  the  patriarchal  family  theory. 

Thus  the  arguments  borrowed  by  Westermarck  from 
the  familiar  habits  of  the  primates  have  not,  I  dare 
say,  the  value  which  he  attributes  to  them.  Our 
knowledge  about  the  family  relations  amongst  the 
sociable  species  of  monkeys  of  our  own  days  is 
extremely  uncertain,  while  the  two  unsociable  species 
of  orang-outan  and  gorilla  must  be  ruled  out  of 
discussion,  both  being  evidently,  as  I  have  indicated 
in  the  text,  decaying  species.  Still  less  do  we  know 
about  the  relations  which  existed  between  males  and 
females  amongst  the  primates  towards  the  end  of  the 
Tertiary  period.  The  species  which  lived  then  are 
probably  all  extinct,  and  we  have  not  the  slightest  idea 
as  to  which  of  them  was  the  ancestral  form  which  Man 
sprung  from.  All  we  can  say  with  any  approach  to 
probability  is,  that  various  family  and  tribe  relations 
must  have  existed  in  the  different  ape  species,  which 
were  extremely  numerous  at  that  time  ;  and  that  great 
changes  must  have  taken  place  since  in  the  habits  of 
the  primates,  similarly  to  the  changes  that  took  place, 
even  within  the  last  two  centuries,  in  the  habits  of 
many  other  mammal  species. 

The  discussion  must  consequently  be  limited  en- 
tirely to  human  institutions ;  and  in  the  minute  dis- 
cussion of  each  separate  trace  of  each  early  institution, 
in  connection  with  all  that  we  know  about  every  other 


316  MUTUAL  AID 

institution  of  the  same  people  or  the  same  tribe,  lies 
the  main  force  of  the  argument  of  the  school  which 
maintains  that  the  patriarchal  family  is  an  institution 
of  a  relatively  late  origin. 

There  is,  in  fact,  quite  a  cycle  of  institutions  amongst 
primitive  men,  which  become  fully  comprehensible  if 
we  accept  the  ideas  of  Bachofen  and  Morgan,  but  are 
utterly  incomprehensible  otherwise.  Such  are :  the 
communistic  life  of  the  clan,  so  long  as  it  was  not 
split  up  into  separate  paternal  families  ;  the  life  in 
long  houses,  and  in  classes  occupying  separate  long 
houses  according  to  the  age  and  stage  of  initiation 
of  the  youth  (M.  Maclay,  H.  Schurz) ;  the  restrictions 
to  personal  accumulation  of  property  of  which  several 
illustrations  are  given  above,  in  the  text ;  the  fact  that 
women  taken  from  another  tribe  belonged  to  the 
whole  tribe  before  becoming  private  property ;  and 
many  similar  institutions  analyzed  by  Lubbock.  This 
wide  cycle  of  institutions,  which  fell  into  decay  and 
finally  disappeared  in  the  village-community  phase  of 
human  development,  stand  in  perfect  accord  with  the 
*' tribal  marriage"  theory;  but  they  are  mostly  left 
unnoticed  by  the  followers  of  the  patriarchal  family 
school.  This  is  certainly  not  the  proper  way  of 
discussing  the  problem.  Primitive  men  have  not 
several  superposed  or  juxtaposed  institutions  as  we 
have  now.  They  have  but  one  institution,  the  clan, 
which  embodies  all  the  mutual  relations  of  the 
members  of  the  clan.  Marriage- relations  and  posses- 
sion-relations are  clan-relations.  And  the  last  that 
we  might  expect  from  the  defenders  of  the  patriarchal 
family  theory  would  be  to  show  us  how  the  just 
mentioned  cycle  of  institutions  (which  disappear  later 
on)  could  have  existed  in  an  agglomeration  of  men 
living  under  a  system  contradictory  of  such  institutions 
— the  system  of  separate  families  governed  by  the 
pater  familias. 

Again,  one  cannot  recognize  scientific  value  in  the 


APPENDIX  317 

way  in  which  certain  serious  difficulties  are  set  aside 
by  the  promoters  of  the  patriarchal  family  theory. 
Thus,  Morgan  has  proved  by  a  considerable  amount 
of  evidence  that  a  strictly-kept  "classificatory  group 
system "  exists  with  many  primitive  tribes,  and  that 
all  the  individuals  of  the  same  category  address  each 
other  as  if  they  were  brothers  and  sisters,  while  the 
individuals  of  a  younger  category  will  address  their 
mothers'  sisters  as  mothers,  and  so  on.  To  say  that 
this  must  be  a  simple  fafon  de  parler — a  way  of 
expressing  respect  to  age — is  certainly  an  easy  method 
of  getting  rid  of  the  difficulty  of  explaining,  why 
this  special  mode  of  expressing  respect,  and  not  some 
other,  has  prevailed  among  so  many  peoples  of  different 
origin,  so  as  to  survive  with  many  of  them  up  to  the 
present  day  ?  One  may  surely  admit  that  ma  and  pa 
are  the  syllables  which  are  easiest  to  pronounce  for  a 
baby,  but  the  question  is — Why  this  part  of  "  baby 
language"  is  used  by  full-grown  people,  and  is 
applied  to  a  certain  strictly-defined  category  of 
persons  ?  Why,  with  so  many  tribes  in  which  the 
mother  and  her  sisters  are  called  ma,  the  father  is 
designated  by  tiatia  (similar  to  diadia — uncle),  dad, 
da  or  pa  ?  Why  the  appellation  of  mother  given  to 
maternal  aunts  is  supplanted  later  on  by  a  separate 
name  ?  And  so  on.  But  when  we  learn  that  with 
many  savages  the  mother's  sister  takes  as  respons- 
ible a  part  in  bringing  up  a  child  as  the  mother 
itself,  and  that,  if  death  takes  away  a  beloved  child, 
the  other  "mother"  (the  mother's  sister)  will  sacrifice 
herself  to  accompany  the  child  in  its  journey  into  the 
other  world — we  surely  see  in  these  names  something 
much  more  profound  than  a  mere  fafon  de  parler,  or 
a  way  of  testifying  respect.  The  more  so  when  we 
learn  of  the  existence  of  quite  a  cycle  of  survivals 
(Lubbock,  Kovalevsky,  Post  have  fully  discussed 
them),  all  pointing  in  the  same  direction.  Of  course 
it  may  be  said  that  kinship  is  reckoned  on  the  maternal 


3i8  MUTUAL  AID 

side  "because  the  child  remains  more  with  its  mother," 
or  we  may  explain  the  fact  that  a  man's  children  by 
several  wives  of  different  tribes  belong  to  their  mothers' 
clans  in  consequence  of  the  savages'  "ignorance  of 
physiology ; "  but  these  are  not  arguments  even 
approximately  adequate  to  the  seriousness  of  the 
questions  involved — especially  when  it  is  known  that 
the  obligation  of  bearing  the  mother's  name  implies 
belonging  to  the  mother's  clan  in  all  respects :  that 
is,  involves  a  right  to  all  the  belongings  of  the 
maternal  clan,  as  well  as  the  right  of  being  protected 
by  it,  never  to  be  assailed  by  any  one  of  it,  and  the 
duty  of  revenging  offences  on  its  behalf. 

Even  if  we  were  to  admit  for  a  moment  the  satis- 
factory nature  of  such  explanations,  we  should  soon 
find  out  that  a  separate  explanation  has  to  be  given 
for  each  category  of  such  facts — and  they  are  very 
numerous.  To  mention  but  a  few  of  them,  there  is : 
the  division  of  clans  into  classes,  at  a  time  when  there 
is  no  division  as  regards  property  or  social  condition  ; 
exogamy  and  all  the  consequent  customs  enumerated 
by  Lubbock ;  the  blood  covenant  and  a  series  of 
similar  customs  intended  to  testify  the  unity  of  descent; 
the  appearance  of  family  gods  subsequent  to  the 
existence  of  clan  gods ;  the  exchange  of  wives  which 
exists  not  only  with  Eskimos  in  times  of  calamity, 
but  is  also  widely  spread  among  many  other  tribes 
of  a  quite  different  origin ;  the  looseness  of  nuptial 
ties  the  lower  we  descend  in  civilization ;  the  com- 
pound marriages — several  men  marrying  one  wife 
who  belongs  to  them  in  turns  ;  the  abolition  of  the 
marriage  restrictions  during  festivals,  or  on  each  fifth, 
sixth,  etc.,  day  ;  the  cohabitation  of  families  in  "  long 
houses  ; "  the  obligation  of  rearing  the  orphan  falling, 
even  at  a  late  period,  upon  the  maternal  uncle ;  the 
considerable  number  of  transitory  forms  showing  the 
gradual  passage  from  maternal  descent  to  paternal 
descent ;  the  limitation  of  the  number  of  children  by 


APPENDIX  319 

the  clan — not  by  the  family — and  the  abolition  of  this 
harsh  clause  in  times  of  plenty ;  family  restrictions 
coming  after  the  clan  restrictions  ;  the  sacrifice  of  the 
old  relatives  to  the  tribe ;  the  tribal  lex  talionis  and 
many  other  habits  and  customs  which  become  a 
"  family  matter "  only  when  we  find  the  family,  in 
the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  finally  constituted ; 
the  nuptial  and  pre-nuptial  ceremonies  of  which 
striking  illustrations  may  be  found  in  the  work  of  Sir 
John  Lubbock,  and  of  several  modern  Russian 
explorers  ;  the  absence  of  marriage  solemnities  where 
the  line  of  descent  is  matriarchal,  and  the  appearance 
of  such  solemnities  with  tribes  following  the  paternal 
line  of  descent — all  these  and  many  others  *  showing 
that,  as  Durkheim  remarks,  marriage  proper  "  is  only 
tolerated  and  prevented  by  antagonist  forces ; "  the 
destruction  at  the  death  of  the  individual  of  what 
belonged  to  him  personally ;  and  finally,  all  the  for- 
midable array  of  survivals,2  myths  (Bachofen  and  his 
many  followers),  folk-lore,  etc.,  all  telling  in  the  same 
direction. 

Of  course,  all  this  does  not  prove  that  there  was  a 
period  when  woman  was  regarded  as  superior  to  man, 
or  was  the  "  head"  of  the  clan ;  this  is  a  quite  distinct 
matter,  and  my  personal  opinion  is  that  no  such  period 
has  ever  existed  ;  nor  does  it  prove  that  there  was  a 
time  when  no  tribal  restrictions  to  the  union  of  sexes 
existed — this  would  have  been  absolutely  contrary  to 
all  known  evidence.  But  when  all  the  facts  lately 
brought  to  light  are  considered  in  their  mutual 
dependency,  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize  that  if 
isolated  couples,  with  their  children,  have  possibly 
existed  even  in  the  primitive  clan,  these  incipient 

1  See  Marriage  Customs  in  many  Lands,  by  H.  N.  Hutchinson, 
London,  1897. 

2  Many  new  and  interesting  forms  of  these  have  been  collected  by 
Wilhelm  Rudeck,  Geschichte  der  bffentlichen  Sittlichktit  in  Deutschland, 
analyzed  by  Durckheim  in  Annuaire  Sociologufue,  ii.  312. 


320  MUTUAL  AID 

families  were  tolerated  exceptions  only,  not  the  institu- 
tion of  the  time. 


VIII. DESTRUCTION  OF  PRIVATE  PROPERTY  ON  THE  GRAVE. 

(To  p.  99.) 

In  a  remarkable  work,  The  Religious  Systems  of 
China,  published  in  1892-97  by  J.  M.  de  Groot  at 
Leyden,  we  find  the  confirmation  of  this  idea.  There 
was  in  China  (as  elsewhere)  a  time  when  all  personal 
belongings  of  a  dead  person  were  destroyed  on  his 
tomb — his  mobiliary  goods,  his  chattels,  his  slaves,  and 
even  friends  and  vassals,  and  of  course  his  widow.  It 
required  a  strong  reaction  against  this  custom  on 
behalf  of  the  moralists  to  put  an  end  to  it.  With  the 
gipsies  in  England  the  custom  of  destroying  all  chattels 
on  the  grave  has  survived  up  to  the  present  day.  All 
the  personal  property  of  the  gipsy  queen  who  died  a 
few  years  ago  was  destroyed  on  her  grave.  Several 
newspapers  mentioned  it  at  that  time. 


ix. — THE  "UNDIVIDED  FAMILY. 
(Top.  124.) 

A  number  of  valuable  works  on  the  South  Slavonian 
Zadruga,  or  "compound  family,"  compared  to  other 
forms  of  family  organization,  have  been  published  since 
the  above  was  written ;  namely,  by  Ernest  Miler 
{Jahrbuch  der  Internationaler  Vereinung  fur  verglei- 
chende  Rechtswissenschaft  und  Volkswirthschaftslehre, 
1897),  and  I.  E.  Geszow's  Zadruga  in  Bulgaria,  and 


APPENDIX  321 

Zadruga- Owner  ship  and  Work  in  Bulgaria  (both  in 
Bulgarian).  I  must  also  mention  the  well-known 
study  of  Bogisic  (De  la  forme  dite  'inokosna'  de  la 
famille  riirale  chez  les  Serbes  et  les  Croates,  Paris, 
1884),  which  has  been  omitted  in  the  text. 


X. THE    ORIGIN    OF    THE    GUILDS. 

(To  p.  I76.) 

The  origin  of  the  guilds  has  been  the  subject  of 
many  controversies.  There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt 
that  craft-guilds,  or  "colleges"  of  artisans,  existed  in 
ancient  Rome.  It  appears,  indeed,  from  a  passage  in 
Plutarch  that  Numa  legislated  about  them.  "  He 
divided  the  people,"  we  are  told,  "  into  trades  .  .  . 
ordering  them  to  have  brotherhoods,  festivals,  and 
meetings,  and  indicating  the  worship  they  had  to 
accomplish  before  the  gods,  according  to  the  dignity 
of  each  trade."  It  is  almost  certain,  however,  that 
it  was  not  the  Roman  king  who  invented,  or  instituted, 
the  trade-colleges — they  had  already  existed  in  ancient 
Greece  ;  in  all  probability,  he  simply  submitted  them 
to  royal  legislation,  just  as  Philippe  le  Bel,  fifteen 
centuries  later,  submitted  the  trades  of  France,  much 
to  their  detriment,  to  royal  supervision  and  legislation. 
One  of  the  successors  of  Numa,  Servius  Tullius,  also 
is  said  to  have  issued  some  legislation  concerning  the 
colleges.1 

Consequently,  it   was   quite  natural  that  historians 
should  ask  themselves  whether  the  guilds  which  took 

1  A  Servio  Tullio  populus  romanus  relatus  in  censum,  digestus  in 
classes,  curiis  atque  collegiis  distributus  (E.  Martin-Saint-Le'on, 
Histoire  des  corporations  de  metiers  depuis  leurs  origines  jusqu'b  Uur 
suppression  en  1791,  etc.,  Paris,  1897). 

Y 


322  MUTUAL   AID 

such  a  development  in  the  twelfth,  and  even  the  tenth 
and  the  eleventh  centuries,  were  not  revivals  of  the 
old  Roman  "  colleges  " — the  more  so  as  the  latter,  as 
seen  from  the  above  quotation,  quite  corresponded  to 
the  mediaeval  guild.1  It  is  known,  indeed,  that  cor- 
porations of  the  Roman  type  existed  in  Southern  Gaul 
down  to  the  fifth  century.  Besides,  an  inscription  found 
during  some  excavations  in  Paris  shows  that  a  cor- 
poration of  Lutetia  nauta  existed  under  Tiberius  ;  and 
in  the  chart  given  to  the  Paris  "water-merchants"  in 
1 1 70,  their  rights  are  spoken  of  as  existing  ab  antique 
(same  author,  p.  51).  There  would  have  been,  there- 
fore, nothing  extraordinary,  had  corporations  been 
maintained  in  early  mediaeval  France  after  the  barbarian 
invasions. 

However,  even  if  as  much  must  be  granted,  there 
is  no  reason  to  maintain  that  the  Dutch  corporations, 
the  Norman  guilds,  the  Russian  artdls,  the  Georgian 
amkari,  and  so  on,  necessarily  have  had  also  a  Roman, 
or  even  a  Byzantine  origin.  Of  course,  the  intercourse 
between  the  Normans  and  the  capital  of  the  East- 
Roman  Empire  was  very  active,  and  the  Slavonians 
(as  has  been  proved  by  Russian  historians,  and  especi- 
ally by  Ram  baud)  took  a  lively  part  in  that  intercourse. 
So,  the  Normans  and  the  Russians  may  have  imported 
the  Roman  organization  of  trade-corporations  into 
their  respective  lands.  But  when  we  see  that  the 
artdl  was  the  very  essence  of  the  every-day  life  of  all 
the  Russians,  as  early  as  the  tenth  century,  and  that 
this  artdl>  although  no  sort  of  legislation  has  ever 
regulated  its  life  till  modern  times,  has  the  very  same 
features  as  the  Roman  college  and  the  Western  guild, 
we  are  still  more  inclined  to  consider  the  eastern 
guild  as  having  an  even  more  ancient  origin  than  the 
Roman  college.  Romans  knew  well,  indeed,  that 

1  The  Roman  sodalitia,  so  far  as  we  may  judge  (same  author,  p.  9), 
corresponded  to  the  Kabyle  fofs. 


APPENDIX  323 

their  sodalitia  and  collegia  were  "  what  the  Greeks  called 
hetairiai"  (Martin-Saint-Leon,  p.  2),  and  from  what 
we  know  of  the  history  of  the  East,  we  may  conclude, 
with  little  probability  of  being  mistaken,  that  the  great 
nations  of  the  East,  as  well  as  Egypt,  also  have  had 
the  same  guild  organization.  The  essential  features 
of  this  organization  remain  the  same  wherever  we 
may  find  them.  It  is  a  union  of  men  carrying  on  the 
same  profession  or  trade.  This  union,  like  the  primi- 
tive clan,  has  its  own  gods  and  its  own  worship, 
always  containing  some  mysteries,  specific  to  each 
separate  union ;  it  considers  all  its  members  as  brothers 
and  sisters — possibly  (at  its  beginnings)  with  all  the 
consequences  which  such  a  relationship  implied  in  the 
gens,  or,  at  least,  with  ceremonies  that  indicated  or 
symbolized  the  clan  relations  between  brother  and 
sister ;  and  finally,  all  the  obligations  of  mutual  sup- 
port which  existed  in  the  clan,  exist  in  this  union  ; 
namely,  the  exclusion  of  the  very  possibility  of  a 
murder  within  the  brotherhood,  the  clan  responsi- 
bility before  justice,  and  the  obligation,  in  case  of  a 
minor  dispute,  of  bringing  the  matter  before  the 
judges,  or  rather  the  arbiters,  of  the  guild  brother- 
hood. The  guild — one  may  say — is  thus  modelled 
upon  the  clan. 

Consequently,  the  same  remarks  which  are  made  in 
the  text  concerning  the  origin  of  the  village  community, 
apply,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  equally  to  the  guild,  the 
art/l,  and  the  craft-  or  neighbour-brotherhood.  When 
the  bonds  which  formerly  connected  men  in  their 
clans  were  loosened  in  consequence  of  migrations,  the 
appearance  of  the  paternal  family,  and  a  growing 
diversity  of  occupations — a  new  territorial  bond  was 
worked  out  by  mankind  in  the  shape  of  the  village 
community  ;  and  another  bond — an  occupation  bond — 
was  worked  out  in  an  imaginary  brotherhood — the 
imaginary  clan,  which  was  represented  :  between  two 
men,  or  a  few  men,  by  the  "  mixture-of-blood  brother- 


324  MUTUAL  AID 

hood"  (the   Slavonian  pobratimstvo],  and  between  a 
greater  number  of  men  of  different  origin,  i.  e.  origin- 
ated from  different  clans,  inhabiting  the  same  village 
or   town  (or   even   different  villages   or  towns) — the 
phratry,  \hz  hetairiai,  the  amkari,  the  artdl,  the  guild.1 
As  to  the  idea  and  the  form  of  such  an  organization, 
its  elements  were  already  indicated  from  the  savage 
period  downwards.     We  know  indeed  that  in  the  clans 
of  all  savages  there  are  separate  secret  organizations 
of  warriors,    of  witches,    of   young   men,    etc. — craft 
mysteries,    in    which    knowledge   concerning   hunting 
or   warfare   is   transmitted;   in   a   word,    "clubs,"    as 
Miklukho-Maclay    described     them.      These     "  mys- 
teries "  were,  in  all  probability,  the  prototypes  of  the 
future  guilds.2 

1  It  is  striking  to  see  how  distinctly  this  very  idea  is  expressed  in 
the  well-known  passage  of  Plutarch  concerning  Numa's  legislation 
of  the  trade-colleges: — "And  through  this,"  Plutarch  wrote,  "he 
was  the  first  to  banish  from  the  city  this  spirit  which  led  people  to 
say:  'I  am  a  Sabine,'  or  'I  am  a  Roman,'  or  'I  am  a  subject  of 
Tatius,'  and  another  :  '  I  am  a  subject  of  Romulus ' " — to  exclude,  in 
other  words,  the  idea  of  different  descent. 

2  The  work  of  H.  Schurtz,  devoted  to  the  "  age-classes  "  and  the 
secret   men's   unions   during  the   barbarian    stages    of   civilization 
(Altersklassen  und  Mdnnerverbande :  eine  Darstellung  der  Grund- 
formen  der  Gesellschaft,  Berlin,  1902),  which  reaches  me  while  I  am 
reading  the  proofs  of  these   pages,   contains  numbers  of  facts   in 
support  of  the  above  hypothesis  concerning  the  origin  of  guilds.   The 
art  of  building  a  large  communal  house,  so  as  not  to  offend  the 
spirits  of  the  fallen  trees  ;  the  art  of  forging  metals,  so  as  to  conciliate 
the  hostile  spirits ;  the  secrets  of  hunting  and  of  the  ceremonies  and 
mask-dances  which  render  it  successful ;  the  art  of  teaching  savage 
arts  to  boys  ;  the  secret  ways  of  warding  off  the  witchcraft  of  enemies 
and,  consequently,  the  art  of  warfare ;  the  making  of  boats,  of  nets 
for  fishing,  of  traps  for  animals,  and  of  snares  for  birds,  and  finally 
the  women's  arts  of  weaving  and  dyeing — all  these  were  in  olden 
times  as  many  "artifices  "  and  "crafts,"  which  required  secrecy  for 
being   effective.     Consequently,   they  were   transmitted    from    the 
earliest  times,  in  secret  societies,  or  "  mysteries,"  to  those  only  who 
had  undergone  a  painful  initiation.     H.   Schurtz  shows  now  that 
savage  life  is  honeycombed  with  secret  societies  and  "  clubs  "  (of 
warriors,  of  hunters),  which  have  as  ancient  an  origin  as  the  marriage 
"  classes  "  in  the  clans,  and  contain  already  all  the  elements  of  the 


APPENDIX  325 

With  regard  to  the  above-mentioned  work  by  E. 
Martin-Saint-Leon,  let  me  add  that  it  contains  very 
valuable  information  concerning  the  organization  of 
the  trades  in  Paris — as  it  appears  from  the  Livre  des 
metiers  of  Boileau — and  a  good  summary  of  informa- 
tion relative  to  the  Communes  of  different  parts  of 
France,  with  all  bibliographical  indications.  It  must, 
however,  be  remembered  that  Paris  was  a  "  Royal 
city  "  (like  Moscow,  or  Westminster),  and  that  conse- 
quently the  free  mediaeval-city  institutions  have  never 
attained  there  the  development  which  they  have 
attained  in  free  cities.  Far  from  representing  "  the 
picture  of  a  typical  corporation,"  the  corporations  of 
Paris,  "born  and  developed  under  the  direct  tutorship 
of  royalty,"  for  this  very  same  cause  (which  the  author 
considers  a  cause  of  superiority,  while  it  was  a  cause 
of  inferiority — he  himself  fully  shows  in  different  parts 
of  his  work  how  the  interference  of  the  imperial 
power  in  Rome,  and  of  the  royal  power  in  France, 
destroyed  and  paralyzed  the  life  of  the  craft-guilds) 
could  never  attain  the  wonderful  growth  and  influence 
upon  all  the  life  of  the  city  which  they  did  attain  in 
North-Eastern  France,  at  Lyons,  Montpellier,  Nlmes, 
etc.,  or  in  the  free  cities  of  Italy,  Flanders,  Germany, 
and  so  on. 


XI. THE   MARKET   AND   THE    MEDIEVAL   CITY. 

(To  p.  190.) 

In  a  work  on  the  mediaeval  city  (Markt  und  Stadt 
in     ihrem    rechtlichen      Verhaltnis,     Leipzig,     1896), 

future  guild  :  secrecy,  independence  from  the  family  and  sometimes 
the  clan,  common  worship  of  special  gods,  common  meals,  jurisdiction 
within  the  society  and  brotherhood.  The  forge  and  the  boat-house 
are,  in  fact,  usual  dependencies  of  the  men's  clubs  ;  and  the  "  long 
houses  "  or  "  palavers  "  are  built  by  special  craftsmen  who  know  how 
to  conjure  the  spirits  of  the  fallen  trees. 


326  MUTUAL  AID 

Rietschel  has  developed  the  idea  that  the  origin  of 
the  German  mediaeval  communes  must  be  sought  in 
the  market.  The  local  market,  placed  under  the 
protection  of  a  bishop,  a  monastery  or  a  prince, 
gathered  round  it  a  population  of  tradesmen  and 
artisans,  but  no  agricultural  population.  The  sections 
into  which  the  towns  were  usually  divided,  radiating 
from  the  market-place  and  peopled  each  with  artisans 
of  special  trades,  are  a  proof  of  that :  they  formed 
usually  the  Old  Town,  while  the  New  Town  used  to 
be  a  rural  village  belonging  to  the  prince  or  the  king. 
The  two  were  governed  by  different  laws. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  the  market  has  played  an 
important  part  in  the  early  development  of  all  medi- 
aeval cities,  contributing  to  increase  the  wealth  of  the 
citizens,  and  giving  them  ideas  of  independence  ;  but, 
as  has  been  remarked  by  Carl  Hegel — the  well- 
known  author  of  a  very  good  general  work  on 
German  mediaeval  cities  (Die  Entstehung  des  deutschen 
Stiidtewesens ,  Leipzig,  1898),  the  town-law  is  not  a 
market-law,  and  Hegel's  conclusion  is  (in  further 
support  to  the  views  taken  in  this  book)  that  the 
mediaeval  city  has  had  a  double  origin.  There  were 
in  it  "  two  populations  placed  by  the  side  of  each 
other :  one  rural,  and  the  other  purely  urban  ;  "  the 
rural  population,  which  formerly  lived  under  the 
organization  of  the  Almende,  or  village  community, 
was  incorporated  in  the  city. 

With  regard  to  the  Merchant  Guilds,  the  work  of 
Herman  van  den  Linden  (Les  Gildes  marchandes  dans 
les  Pays-Bas  au  Moyen  Age,  Gand,  1896,  in  Recueil 
de  travaux  public's  par  la  Faculty  de  Philosophic  et 
Lettres]  deserves  a  special  mention.  The  author 
follows  the  gradual  development  of  their  political 
force  and  the  authority  which  they  gradually  ac- 
quired upon  the  industrial  population,  especially  on 
the  drapers,  and  describes  the  league  concluded  by 
the  artisans  to  oppose  their  growing  power.  The 


APPENDIX  327 

idea,  which  is  developed  in  this  book,  concerning  the 
appearance  of  the  merchant  guild  at  a  later  period 
which  mostly  corresponded  to  a  period  of  decline  of 
the  city  liberties,  seems  thus  to  find  confirmation  in 
H.  van  den  Linden's  researches. 


XII. MUTUAL-AID   ARRANGEMENTS    IN    THE   VILLAGES 

OF    NETHERLANDS    AT    THE    PRESENT    DAY. 

(To  p.  250.) 

The  Report  ol  the  Agricultural  Commission  of 
Netherlands  contains  many  illustrations  relative  to 
this  subject,  and  my  friend,  M.  Cornelissen,  was  kind 
enough  to  pick  out  for  me  the  corresponding  pass- 
ages from  these  bulky  volumes  (Uitkomsten  van  het 
Onderzoek  naar  den  Toestand  van  den  Landbouw  in 
Nederland,  2  vols.  1890). 

The  habit  of  having  one  thrashing-machine,  which 
makes  the  round  of  many  farms,  hiring  it  in  turn,  is 
very  widely  spread,  as  it  is  by  this  time  in  nearly 
every  other  country.  But  one  finds  here  and  there  a 
commune  which  keeps  one  thrashing-machine  for  the 
community  (vol.  I.  xviii.  p.  31). 

The  farmers  who  have  not  the  necessary  numbers 
of  horses  for  the  plough  borrow  the  horses  from  their 
neighbours.  The  habit  of  keeping  one  communal 
bull,  or  one  communal  stallion,  is  very  common. 

When  the  village  has  to  raise  the  ground  (in  the 
low  districts)  in  order  to  build  a  communal  school,  or 
for  one  of  the  peasants  in  order  to  build  a  new  house, 
a  bede  is  usually  convoked.  The  same  is  done  for 
those  farmers  who  have  to  move.  The  bede  is 
altogether  a  widely-spread  custom,  and  no  one,  rich 
or  poor,  will  fail  to  come  with  his  horse  and  cart. 


328  MUTUAL  AID 

The  renting  in  common,  by  several  agricultural 
labourers,  of  a  meadow,  for  keeping  their  cows,  is 
found  in  several  parts  of  the  land ;  it  is  also  frequent 
that  the  farmer,  who  has  plough  and  horses,  ploughs 
the  land  for  his  hired  labourers  (vol.  I.  xxii.  p.  18, 
etc.). 

As  to  the  farmers'  unions  for  buying  seed,  exporting 
vegetables  to  England  and  so  on,  they  become  uni- 
versal. The  same  is  seen  in  Belgium.  In  1896, 
seven  years  after  peasants'  guilds  had  been  started, 
first  in  the  Flemish  part  of  the  country,  and  four  years 
only  after  they  were  introduced  in  the  Walloon  portion 
of  Belgium,  there  were  already  207  such  guilds,  with 
a  membership  of  10,000  (Annuaire  de  la  Science 
Agronomique,  vol.  I.  (2),  1896,  pp.  148  and  149). 


INDEX 


AACHEN,  206 

"  Aba,"  common  hunt,  141 

Abbeville,  177,  207 

Abyssinia,  village  community,  122 

Adalbert,  St.,  167 

Adlerz,   Prof.   Gottfried,   on   ants, 

303,  3°4 

Africa,  animal  population  of,  39, 
47 ;  village  community,  122 ; 
barbarian  monarchies,  162  ;  com- 
pensation laws  of  various  stems, 
J33>  I34»  customary  law,  148, 
149  ;  village  community,  260 

Agricultural  co-operation  in  Nether- 
lands, 327  ;  in  Belgium,  328.  See 
also  Syndicats,  Artels. 

Agricultural  implements,  improved 
in  village  communities,  257 

Aids,  in  guilds,  193 

Aids  :  in  Kabyle  villages,  143 ;  in 
Georgia,  143  n. ;  amongst  French 
peasants,  243  seq.  ;  in  Caucasia, 
244  n.  ;  in  Germany,  248 

Aire,  "friendship"  of,  177 

Alans,  136 

Aleoutes,  91,  95  seq. ;  in  stone  age 
still,  96  ;  peacefulness,  96  ;  peri- 
odical distributions  of  accumu- 
lated wealth,  97 ;  code  of  morality, 

99 

Alfurus,  the,  149 
Algeria,  144 

Allthing,  law  recited  at,  1 58 
Alpine  Clubs,  280 
Altum,  Dr.  B.,  on  destruction  of  the 

pine-moth,  71  ;  of  mice,  71,  72 
Amalfi,  1 68 

America,  animal  population  of,  38 
America,  Northern,  32 
Amiens,  177,   182,   183  ».,   194  n. ; 

acting  as  arbiter,  207  ». 
Amitas,  193 


Amkari,  169,  170,  274,  322 

Ami,  192 

Amu  river,  118  n. 

Amur  river,  viii,  ix,  48,  49,  130 

Anabaptism,  225 

"Anaya"  custom,  145,  148 

Ancher,  Kofod,  on  old  Danish 
guilds,  172 

Anglo-Saxon  law,  161 

Annam,  village  community,  127 

Antelopes,  47,  48 

Anthropological  Society  of  Paris, 
questions  answered,  92,  93 ;  on 
cannibalism,  105 

Anticosti  Island,  305 

Ants,  mutual  support  with,  12-16; 
feeding  each  other,  12 ;  agricul- 
ture and  horticulture  of,  14 ; 
federations  of  their  nests,  18 ; 
their  play,  55  ;  book  of  Pierre 
Huber  on,  302  ;  Mr.  Sutherland's 
appreciation,  303  ;  Prof.  Adlerz 
on,  303  ;  nations  of,  304 

Antwerp,  183  n. 

Apes,  sociability  of,  50-52  ;  family 
relations,  315 

Aquatic  birds,  33, 34  ;  family  habits 
of,  36  n. ;  on  St.  Lawrence  river, 

305 

Arabs,  invasion  of,  165 

Aral,  lake,  118  n. 

Arani,  the,  149 

Arbiter,  city  acting  as,  207 

Architecture,  mediaeval,  210  seq.  ; 
communal  inspiration,  210  ;  me- 
chanical achievements,  211 

Arctic  America  Eskimos,  84 

Arctic  archipelagoes,  33 

Ardennes,  re-allotting  of  land,  242 

Ariege,  village  life  in,  243  seq.  ; 
communal  culture,  247 

Armadillo,  310 


329 


330 


INDEX 


Arnold,  Dr.  Wilhelm,  122  «.,  162 ; 
on  German  cities,  180 

Art,  mediaeval  and  Greek,  com- 
munal inspiration  of,  210,  213 

Arttt,  169,  174  and  note,  193 ; 
modern  developments  in  Russia, 
272-274,  322,  324 

Arthur,  King,  legends  of,  135 

Aryans,  early,  87,  119 

Asara,  on  sociability  in  the  Tree- 
creepers'  family  of  birds,  312 

Asia,  Northern,  32 

Assemble  Constituante,  231 

Associations  of  animals :  family, 
group,  society,  53 ;  in  villages, 

53 

Athens,  Acropolis,  212 

Audubon,  5  ;  on  parrots,  30 ;  packs 
of  Labrador  wolves,  40  ;  Canada 
musk-rats,  44 ;  his  "  Journals," 
304 ;  on  aquatic  birds  on  St. 
Lawrence  river,  304  ;  on  eagles, 

305 

Augsburg,  167,  206 
Augustin,  St.,  283 
Aunt,  maternal,  sacrificing  herself 

to  follow  dead  child,   101  ;   her 

duties  in  the  tribe,  317 
Australasia,  Southern,  84 
Australia,  29  ;  droves  of  cattle,  59 
Australians,      84,      91-93  ;       The 

Folklore,    Manners,   etc.,    of  A. 

Aborigines,  92  n. ;  code  of  mor- 
ality, 100  ». 
Austria,     destruction     of    village 

community,  235 
Autumn,  societies  of  birds,  36 

Babeau,  old  village  in  France, 
122  n. ;  old  towns,  184;  village 
community,  231,  232 

"Baby  language,"  317 

Bachofen,  on  late  origin  of  family, 

79,  313-319 

Bacon,  Francis,  215 

Bacon,  Roger,  215 

Baden,  247,  248 

Bain,  Eb.,  on  merchant  and  craft 
guilds,  199  n. 

Baker,  S.  W.,  hunting  associations 
of  lions,  40 ;  societies  of  ele- 
phants, 50 

Bakradze,  Dm.,  on  common  culture, 
127;  on  common  ownership  of 
serfs,  147 


"  Balai,"  or  "  bark,"  94 

Balkan  peninsula,  village  commu- 
nity, 250 

Bancroft,  on  common  culture,  127 

Baptists,  255 

Barbarians,  mutual  aid  among  the, 
115-152  ;  migrations  dissociating 
them,  1 20 ;  village-community 
institutions  worked  out  by,  120  ; 
justice  rendered  by  village  folk- 
mote,  131  ;  fred  and  wergeld, 
132,  133  ;  amount  of  composition 
payment,  133  ;  settling  of  peace, 
134  ;  mild  punishments,  134  ; 
tribes  now  living  under  the  insti- 
tutions of,  138  seq.\  clearing  for- 
ests, colonizing,  155 

Barbarossa,  204 

Barrow,  91 

Barthold,  German  mediaeval  cities, 
189  n. 

Basel,  205  ;  cathedral,  212 

Bassano,  174  n. 

Bassoutos,  148  n. 

Bastian,  Adolf,  on  blood-revenge 
and  justice,  108  n.,  1 12 ;  obligation 
to  aid  travellers,  145  ;  Oceania 
islands,  1 50  n. 

Batavians,  125  n. 

Bates,  W.,  on  Darwinism,  xiv  ; 
"campos"  of  termites,  18;  on 
Brazil  vultures,  22  ;  destruction 
of  winged  ants,  70 ;  on  swarms 
of  butterflies,  301 ;  scarcity  of 
animal  population  in  Brazil,  309 ; 
bird-societies,  312 

Baudrillart,  A.,  on  rural  populations 
of  France,  246,  247 

Baudrillart,  H.,  on  rural  populations 
of  France,  246 

Bavaria,  249 

Bears,  sociable  in  Kamtchatka,  42  ; 
in  Tibet,  306 

Beaumont  chart,  178 

Beavers,  colonies  of,  39,  45 

Becker,  A.,  on  sudden  disappearance 
of  Sousliks,  72 

Bede,  327 

"  Bee,"  143  n. 

Bees,  mutual  aid  with,  16-18  ;  anti- 
social instincts  among  them,  17 

Beetles,  burying :  mutual  aid  a- 
mong,  10 

Behring,  his  crew  and  polar  foxes, 


INDEX 


Belgium,  forced  sale  of  communal 
lands,  235  ;  fanner's  unions,  328 

Bentham,  112 

Berkshire,  237 

Bern,  199  «.,  203  n. 

Besanc,on,  201 

Besseler,  on  formation  of  private 
land-ownership,  125 

Bink,G.  L.,on  New  Guinea  Papuas, 

93 

Bird-mountains,  34 

Birds ;  breeding  associations,  32- 
35  ;  autumn  societies  of,  36 ;  mi- 
grations, 36-38 

Blanchard,  on  Insect  metamor- 
phoses, 12 

Blavignac,  J.  D.,  on  labour  in 
Fribourg,  I94». 

Bleck,  W.,  on  Bushmen,  89 

Blood  covenant,  318,  319,  324 

Blood  revenge — a  conception  of 
justice,  107  ;  its  survival  amongst 
ourselves,  108 ;  a  tribal  affair, 
108  ;  Ad.  Bastian  on,  108  «. ; 
"  head-hunting,"  109  ;  with  the 
barbarians,  132  seq.,  173 

Boars,  societies  of,  50 

Bock,  Carl,  on  "head-hunting" 
among  Dayaks,  109;  grossly  ex- 
aggerated, IO)  ft. 

Bogisic,*on  joint  family  with  the 
Serbs  and  the  Croates,  321 

Bogos,  148  «. 

Bohemia,  cities,  166,  210 

Boileau,  "  Livre  des  metiers,"  325 

Bolivia,  60 

Bologna,  203  n.,  205 

Bonnemere,  village  institutions  in 
France,  122,  232  «. 

Borneo,  52 

Botta  and  Leo  :  early  accumula- 
tions of  wealth,  157;  Lombardian 
code,  161,  162,  180,  189  n. 

"Bratskiye,"  140 

Braunschweig,  199  n. 

Brazil,  ants,  13  ;  falcons,  22,  309  ; 
natives,  84  ;  common  culture,  127 

Brehm,  A.,xi,  22,  23,  25,  26,  27,  28, 
33,  36,  46 ;  on  fight  of  hamadryas 
against  his  caravan,  52,  56 ;  on 
sociable  life  of  monkeys,  80  n. 

Brehon  laws,  135 

Bremen,  1 68,  213 

Brentano,  L.,  on  trade-unions,  199; 
struggle  within  cities,  218  n. 


Brescia,  205 

Breslau,  210  ;  bell-tower,  213 
Brighton  Aquarium,  1 1 
Bristol  miners,  269 

Brittany,  common  culture,  127 

Bruges,  168,  198 

Buchenberger,  A.,  on  destruction  of 
village  community  in  Belgium, 
235  ;  on  agricultural  co-operation 
in  Germany,  248,  249. 

Bucher,  K.,  addenda  to  Laveleye's 
Primitive  Property,  122,  239  '».; 
agricultural  co-operation  in  Ger- 
many, 248 

Biichner,  Dr.  Louis,  xii,  xviii ;  on 
animal  intelligence,  7  n. ;  "  Love," 
7,  12,  41 ;  on  compassion  among 
animals,  59 

Budding  of  new  communities,  129 

Buffon  on  rabbits,  46 

Bulgares,  254 

Buphagus.    See  Sea-hen. 

Burchell,  89 

Burgdorf,  203  «. 

Biirgemutzen,  239. 

Burghers,  struggle  against  feudal- 
ism, 200 

Burgundy,  217 

Burial,  private  property  destroyed 
at,  320 

Burrichter,  180 

Buryates :  joint  families,  138 ; 
common  meals,  138;  confedera- 
tions, 139  ;  brotherly  habits,  139; 
common  hunts,  139 

Bushmen,  84,  88,  90 

Butterflies,  swarms  of,  301 

Buxbaum,  L.,  37 

Buzzards  attacked  by  lapwings,  25 

Byelaeff,  Prof.,  Russian  History, 
162,  i66».,  181,  189  «. 

Caesar,  Julius,  126 

Caesarism,  development  of,  216 
sey.,  224 

Calonne,  A.  de,  on  communal  pur- 
chases, 182  ;/.,  183,  194  n. 

Cambrai,  200 n. 

Canada,  musk-rats,  44 

Cannibalism :  discussion  at  Paris 
Anthropological  Society,  105 ; 
probably  originated  during 
Glacial  period,  106 ;  religious 
character  of,  in  Fiji  and  Mexico, 
107 


332 


INDEX 


Capponi,  Gino,  history  of  Florence, 
198,  214  n. 

Caprides,  sociability  of,  48 

Capuchins,  51 

Carnivores,  sociability  among,  40 

Carpes,  136 

Casalis,  on  common  law  of  Bas- 
soutos,  148 

Caspian  Sea,  previous  extension, 
118  n. 

Cassiques,  mocking  eagles,  26 

Cathedrals,  medieval,  210 

Caucasian  Mountaineers,  common 
culture,  127,  146,  147 ;  growth 
of  feudalism,  146 ;  joint  stock 
feudalism,  147 ;  criminal  law, 
147  ;  folk  tribunals,  148  ;  " aids" 
in  villages,  244  n. 

Celt- Iberians,  126 

Celts,  87,  119 

Central  America,  common  culture, 
129 

Central  Asia,  herds  of  mammals, 
39  ;  dessication  of,  118  ».,  119 

Centralization,  growth  of  ideas  of, 
217  seq. 

Centralization  in  France,  233 

Ceylon,  50 

Chakars,  singing  in  concert,  56 

Chambers'  Encyclopedia,  167  «. 

Charitable  associations,  282. 

Charities,  291 

Charroi,  242 

Checks,  natural,  to  over  multiplica- 
tion, 70  seq.;  mice,  307,  308 ; 
coypu,  308 

Chernigov,  village  community  in, 

253 

Cherusques,  136 

Children,  mutual  support  amongst, 
285  ;  purchase  of,  for  factories  in 
England,  290 

Chinese,  common  hunts,  141 

Chukchis,  91 

Church,  Christian,  125  ;  and  kings, 
161  ;  and  Emperor  in  Italy,  204  ; 
favours  Csesarism,  217  ;  studies 
of  Roman  law,  220 ;  revolt  against 
the  Catholic  Church,  224 

Cibrario,  L.,  mediaeval  economics 
in  Italy,  183 ;  on  slavery  and 
serfdom,  219 

Civets,  40 

Clan,  its  organization  with  primi- 
tive men,  78-88 ;  opposed  to 


other  clans,  112;  dissociated  by 
migrations,  119  ;  App.  VII,  313 

Clan-marriage,  86 ;  with  Semites, 
Aryans,Australians,  Red  Indians, 
Eskimos,  etc.,  87 ;  Appendix 
VII,  313 

"  Classes,"  marriage-,  among  sav- 
ages, 316;  age-classes  and 
guilds,  325 

Clements,  Dmitri,  on  Lukchun 
antiquities,  119 

Cliff  swallows,  35 

Clode,Ch.  M.,  on  Guild  of  Merchant 
Taylors,  175  ».,  183  n. 

"  Clubs"  of  savages,  325 

Cockroaches,  one  species  driving 
another,  61 

Code  Napoleon,  198 

"gof'of  Kabyles,  145,  146,  171 

Collegia,  169,  324,  323 

Collins,  Col.,  89 

Cologne,  167,  171  n. ;  neighbour 
guilds,  1 80  ;  guilds,  198,  205, 
206  ;  cathedral,  how  it  was  built, 
212 

"  Colonies  Animales,"  53 

Colonization,  by  village  communi- 
ties, 130 ;  by  mediaeval  cities, 
219 

Colonna,  219 

Colorado,  35 

Combination  Laws  repealed,  266 

Corn-bourgeois,  202 

Communal  culture,  modern,  in 
Ariege,  247  ;  in  Westphalia,  248  ; 
in  Kursk,  256 

Communal  hay-mowing,  128 

Communal  lands  in  France,  232  and 
note,  241,  242 

Communal  meals,  128 

Commune  of  Laonnais,  207 

Communes  of  France,  232 

Compayne,  193 

Compensation  for  murder,  133, 
1 34  ;  for  stealing,  1 56 

Competition  in  Nature,  theory  of, 
analyzed,  60-75  ;  Darwin's  argu- 
ments to  prove  it,  61  ;  indirect 
argument  in  favour  of  it,  63  seq, ; 
natural  checks  to  it,  70 ;  is  it  an 
element  of  progressive  evolution, 
70 ;  adaptations  to  avoid  it,  74, 
309-312 

Compiegne,  177 

Conclusion,  293-300 


INDEX 


333 


Congresses,  mediaeval,  of  working- 
men,  196 

Conrad,  205 

Constance,  206 

Constantinople,  217 

Consular  Reports  (British),  252 

Convention,  French,  edicts  to  de- 
stroy village  community,23i  ;law 
against  coalitions  of  workers,  265 

Convivii,  175 

Co-operation,  among  peasants,  in 
Switzerland,  241  ;  in  France, 
246  seq.  ;  in  Germany,  248 ;  in 
Russia,  250-258  ;  creameries  in 
West  Siberia,  258 ;  in  Britain, 
271  ;  on  the  continent,  272;  in 
Russia,  272-274 

Copernicus,  215 

Cornelissen,  on  mutual  support 
in  Dutch  villages,  327 

Cornelius,  on  Minister  insurrection, 
225 

Cornish,  C.  J.,  on  animals  at  play, 

307 

Corporations  of  France,  195  n. 

Coue's,  Dr.  E.,  on  Birds  of  Kergue- 
len  Island,  25 ;  cliff-swallows, 
and  falcon,  35  ;  birds  of  Dacota, 

36,  305 

Coulanges,  Fustel  de,  121,  313 
Country  life  in  England,  237  n. 
Coures,  village  community  of,  122 
Cranes,  sociability  of,  27 
Crema,  205 

Crofters'  Commission,  237 
Cross,  market-,  190 
Cunow,Heinrich,village  community 

in  Peru,  127 
Cyclists'  Alliance,  279 
"  Cyvar,"  127 

Dacota,  36 

Daghestan,  feudal  relations  in,  146 

Dahn,  F.,  old  Teutonic  institutions, 

122   «.;    early  accumulation    of 

wealth,  157  ;    old  Teutonic  law, 

164 

Dall,  on  Aleoutes,  97 
Dalloz,    on    communal    lands     in 

France,  232 

Dancing  among  birds,  55,  56 
Danish    co-operators    in     Siberia, 

258 
Danish  guild,  old,  171;  Pappenheim 

on,  175  n. 


Dante,  215 

Dareste,  232  «. 

Dargun,  L.,  on  altruism  in  econo- 
mics, 284  n. 

Darwin,  Charles,  on  struggle  for 
life,  vii,  i  ;  on  same  subject,  in 
Descent  of  Man,  x,  2  ;  Bates 
on  his  ideas,  xiv ;  Malthusian 
influence,  3  ;  his  followers,  4,  6, 
9  ;  hunting  associations  of  kites, 
21;  fight  of  hamadryas,  52; 
dancing  among  birds,  55;  features 
useful  in  struggle  for  life,  57  ; 
compassion  among  pelicans,  59  ; 
struggle  for  life  and  competition, 
analysis  of  this  theory,  60-75  > 
arguments  of  Darwin  in  favour 
of,  61;  metaphoric  sense  of  "ex- 
termination more  probable,  63 ; 
Malthus'  "  arithmetical  argu- 
ment," 68 ;  over-population  and 
natural  checks  to,  68-72  ;  how 
animals  avoid  competition,  72- 
75  ;  misuse  made  of  his  termin- 
ology, 78;  Man  originated  from 
a  sociable  species,  79 ;  on  Man's 
sociable  qualities  as  a  factor  of 
evolution,  no 

Darwin,  Dr.  Erasmus,  on  moulting 
crabs,  12 

Darwinism  and  Sociology,  ix;  Bates 
on  Darwinism,  xiv 

Darwinists,  vii ;  Russian,  9 

Dasent,  George,  Burnt  Njal  saga, 

135 

Dayaks,  their  habits,  91  ;  their  con- 
ception of  justice,  109  ;  exagger- 
ations of  recent  writers,  109,  no 

Death-sentences  amongst  moderns, 
107  n. 

Decay  of  mediaeval  cities,  causes 
of,  215  seq. 

Deer.    See  Fallow  Deer. 

Defensor  of  the  city,  188 

"  Degenerated  "  tribes,  83 

Dellys,  144 

Demidoff,  A.,  23 

Dendrocolaptidae,  312 

Denmark  shell-heaps,  80 

Denton,  Rev.,  on  mediaeval  Scot- 
land, 210  n. 

Desiccation,  a  cause  of  migrations, 
1 1 8;  of  post-pliocene  lakes,  Ii8«. 

Desmichels,  156 

Dessa,  122 


334 


INDEX 


Destruction  of  animal  life  by  natural 
agencies,  vii 

De  Stuers,  on  Malayan  village 
community,  150 

Dhole  dogs,  packs  of,  41 

Diodorus,  126 

Dixon,  Ch.,  flights  of  birds  for 
pleasure,  23  ;  bird-mountains,  34 ; 
gatherings  before  migrating,  38  ; 
destruction  of  bird-life  by  cold, 
72;  on  aquatic  birds'  associa- 
tions, 305  ;  on  lapwings,  310 

Djemmda,  142,  147,  244,  259 

Dock-labourers'  strike,  269 

Doniol,  on  village  institutions  in 
France,  122,  232  n. 

D'Orbigny,  5  ;  on  kites,  21 

Dordogne,  palaeolithic  relics  in,  80 

Doren,  A.,  on  merchant  guild, 
191  n. 

Dousse-alin,  48,  49 

Dragon-flies,  migrations,  302 

Drought,  effects  of,  47 

Drummond,  H.,  xviii 

Druzhestvat  169 

Dunlins,  23 

Durkheim,  Prof.,  on  human  mar- 
riage, 314,  319 

Ebrard,  on  ants,  12 

Eckennann,  Gesprache,  xi 

Eckert,  i8o«. 

Edward  III.,  219 

Edward  VI.,  confiscates  estates  of 
guilds,  264 

Efimenko,  Mme.,  on  village  commu- 
nity in  Russia,  123  n. 

Eghiazarov,  S.,  on  Georgian  guilds, 
170,  274  n. 

Egypt,  325 

Eichhorn,  165  n. 

Elephants,  societies  of,  50 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  statute  of,  for 
regulating  wages,  265 

Elphinstone,  village  community  of 
the  Afghans,  122 

Emperor  and  Church  in  Italy,  204 

Emprount,  243 

Enclosure  Acts,  234 

England,  village  community  in, 
121 ;  mediaeval,  182/2. ;  destruc- 
tion of  village  community,  233 
seq. ;  present  survivals  of  village 
community,  236  seq. 

Ennen,  Dr.  Leonard,  Cologne  Ca- 


thedral,   171 ;    Cologne,   180  «., 

212  n. 
Ennett,  J.  T.,  mediaeval  art  in  small 

parishes,  213 

Equality,  institutions  for  maintain- 
ing it,  113 

Eguus  Przewalski,  47,  67 
Erskine,   on    self-sacrifice    of   old 

relatives,  104 
Eskimos,  their  institutions,  84,  91, 

94 ;  their  nearest  congeners,  their 

habits,  95  seq. 
Esnafs  or  esnatfs,  169,  274 
Espinas,  on  animal   societies,  xii, 

7,53 

Europe,  Northern,  32 

Evolution,  progressive :  mutual  aid 
its  main  factor,  x,  7-9  ;  is  it  fos- 
tered by  competition,  73 

Exchange  artel,  273 

Fabre,  J.  B.,  on  insects,  12 

Fagniez,  on  mediaeval  industry  at 
Paris,  182  n.,  196  n. 

Falcon,  prairie,  35 

Falcon,  red-throated,  in  bands,  22  ; 
in  South  Russian  Steppes,  22 

Falke,  Joh.,  on  mediaeval  condi- 
tions of  labour,  194  ;  on  Hansa, 
205 

Falkenau,  strikes,  268 

Fallow  deer,  migrations,  8,  9,  48, 

49- 

Falsifications  in  agriculture,  246  n. 
"  Families,  The,"  191,  218 
Family,  paternal,  amidst  the  clan, 

H3 

Family,     tribal    origin    of,    78-88, 

Appendix  VII,  313-320 
Fame  Islands,  305 
Federalism,  principles  of,  220 
Federations    of   barbarian    stems, 

136  ;  of  cities,  204  seq.    Also  see 

Leagues 
Fee,  6 

Ferdinand  I.,  195 
Ferrari,  on  Italian  cities,  167,  168 

n.,  189  n. ;  on  wars  between  them, 

204 
Feudalism,   growing   in   Caucasia, 

146  ;  joint  stock,  147  ;  with  Ma- 
layans, 149,  1 66 

Feuds  amongst  savages,  94, 108, 109 
Fielden,  H.  W.,  on  musk-ox,  49 
Fiji,  religious  cannibalism  in,  195 


INDEX 


335 


Filial  love  with  savages,  101  n. 

Finns,  village  community  of,   122 

Finsch,  O.,  on  New  Guinea,  93  n. ; 
on  Hyperboreans,  100  n. 

Fishing  by  pelicans,  23  ;  co-opera- 
tive in  Russia,  273 

Fison,  L.,  and  A.  W.  Howitt,  on 
tribal  origin  of  family,  85, 92 

Flanders,  187 

Flemish  cities,  213 

Florence,  revolution  of  minor  arts, 
198  and  n. ;  fights  against  land- 
lords, 202, 203  n. ;  head  of  a  league 
of  cities,  205  ;  league  of  villages 
in  its  contado,  206  ;  flourishing 
state  of  country  dependent  upon 
it,  210  n.  ;  words  of  its  Council, 
213;  its  schools  and  hospitals, 
214  «.;  its  fifteenth-century  re- 
volution, 221 

Folkmote,  its  attributions  in  vil- 
lages, 121  ;  judicial  functions  of, 

131  ;  extent  of  jurisdiction,  132  ; 
surpreme    in    mediaeval    cities, 
1 60 ;    jurisdiction     retained    in 
feudal    times,    164,    165  ;    elect- 
ing the  defensor,   166,    167;   in 
London,    167    n. ;    its  abolition, 
226 ;    Gomme  on  its  functions, 

237  n- 

Food  shared  in  common  by  sav- 
ages, 112  ;  by  Hottentots,  112  n. 

Forbes,  James,  on  feeling  of  sym- 
pathy in  monkeys,  5 1 

Forel,  Prof.,  on  ants,  12,  13,  14,  15  ; 
on  federations  of  ants'  nests,  18 

Forts,  165 

Four-fields'  system  in  village  com- 
munities, 258 

Foxes,  hunting  packs  of,  41  ;  polar, 
41  ;  gregarious,  307 

France.  See  Village  Community, 
Guilds,  Mediaeval  Cities. 

Franche-Comte",  201 

Franconian  period,  180 

Franks,  125  n. ;  common  culture, 
126 

Fredy  paid  to  village  community, 

132  ;  origin,  133  ;  in  later  periods, 
158-161 

Freemasonry,  282 
Fribourg,  194  n. 
Fritsch,  on  Bushmen,  89 
Froebel  Unions,  281 
sy  247 


Fuegians,  part  of  savage  belt,  84; 

in  recent  descriptions,  95 
Fuego,  Terra  di,  shell-heaps,  82 
Fustel   de    Coulanges,  on   village 

community,  121,  313 

Galicia,  towns,  210 

Galileo,  215 

GaUy  123  n. 

Gazelle,  48 

Geburschaften,  180 

Geddes,    Prof.    P.,    on     Malthus 

argument,  68 

Geelwink  Bay,  Papuas,  93 
Geneva,  197 
Genoa,  205,  213 
Gens,  gentile  organization,  85.    See 

Clan,  Savages. 
Georgians,  147 

German  Expedition  on  Eskimos,  96 
Germans  of  Tacitus,  87 
Gerona,  210 
Geselle,  193-195 
Geszow,   I.  E.,  on  joint  family  in 

Bulgaria,  320 
Ghent,  168,  246  n. 
Gibelins,  204 

Giddings,  Prof.  F.  A.,  xviii 
Gill,  on  New  Hebrides  savages, 

101 
Giraud  Teulon,  on  tribal  origin  of 

family,  85 

Gironnais,  St.,  syndicate  of,  247  n. 
Giry,  on  Rouen  commune,  201 
Glaber,  Raoul,  168 
Glacial  period,  8 1  ;  time  of  probable 

origin  of  cannibalism,  106 
Glarus,  Alpine  meadows,  240 
Gleditsch,  10 

"  God's  Peace,"  167,  168  ». 
Goethe,  on  Mutual  Aid,  xi 
Gomme,  G.  L.,  on  folkmote  in 

London,    167   n. ;    modern  sur- 
vivals of  village  community,  236, 

23? 

Gorilla,  a  decaying  species,  52 
Gothic  architecture,  178,  181,  210 

seq. 
Gramich,  W.,  on  mediaeval  Wiirz- 

burg,  181,  182,  193 
Grasshoppers,  gregarious,  302 
Great  Inquest,  234 
Greece,  165  n. ;  antique  cities  of, 

162,  169,  219;  guilds  of  ancient 

Greece,  321 


336 


INDEX 


Greek  art,  21 1,  213 

Greeks  of  Homer,  87 

Green,  J.  R.,  early  accumulation 
of  wealth,  157;  on  frith  guilds, 
175  n. ;  early  London,  180,  189 
». ;  cities  and  country,  219 

Green,  Mrs.,  on  mediaeval  cities  in 
England,  162  ;  on  guilds,  175  #.; 
on  communal  purchases,  191  n. ; 
labour  and  craft  guilds,  199  n. 

Greenland,  ice  age  in,  84 

Greve,  180 

Grey,  Adm.,  on  Australians,  92  ; 
savage  conception  of  justice, 
112  n. 

Groot,  J.  M.  de,  on  religious  sys- 
tems in  China,  320 

Gross,  Carl,  Play  of  Animals,  54, 

307 

Gross,  Ch.,  on  guild  merchant,  183  ; 
on  communal  purchases,  184, 
185,191;  struggles  between  guilds, 
199  n. 

Guelfs,  204 

Guilbert  de  Nogent,  178 

Guilds,  their  universality,  169  ;  their 
character  on  board  ship,  170; 
for  building,  171  ;  Danish  skraa, 
171  ;  obligations  of  guild  bro- 
thers, 172 ;  of  serfs,  beggars, 
teachers,  etc.,  173,  174  ;  common 
meal,  175 ;  merchant,  175  ».; 
frith  guilds,  id.  ;  federation  of,  in 
the  city,  176 ;  its  sovereignty, 
181  ;  sale  of  products  and  buying 
ofnecessaries,i8i-i83 ;  merchant 
guilds,  184-6;  organization  of 
work,  191-194  ;  hours  of  labour, 
195  ;  their  own  militia,  197 ; 
union  of,  symbolized  in  cathe- 
drals, 212;  donations,  212; 
spoliated  by  State,  226  ;  estates 
confiscated  by  Henry  VIII.  and 
Edward  VI.,  263,  264 ;  State 
legislation  instead  of  self-juris- 
diction, 264  ;  wages,  265  ;  guilds 
and  trade  unions,  266  seq.  ;  origin 
of,  Appendix  X,  321  seq.  ;  in  old 
Rome,  321  ;  with  the  Normans 
and  the  Slavonians,  322  ;  in  old 
Greece,  323 ;  in  the  East,  323  ; 
modelled  upon  the  clan,  323  ;  in 
old  France,  324 ;  relation  to 
"age  classes  "  and  secret  societies 
of  early  barbarians,  325 


Guizot,  on  early  accumulation  of 

wealth,  157 

Gurney,  G.  H.,  on  house-sparrow,  24 
Gutteridge,  Joseph,  on  artisan  life, 

287 
Gymnasts'  societies,  279 

Hamburg,  199  «. 

Hanoteau,  on  Kabyles,  141-145 

Hansa,   ship    guild,    170,    189  n.  ; 

labour  congresses  in   Hanseatic 

towns,  196  and  n.  ;  league,  205  ; 

Flemish,  North  German,  208 
Hares,  45  ;  sociable,  305 
Harvest  supper,  128 
Hawk  chased  by  sparrows,  26 
Haygarth,  on  cattle  in  Australia,  59 
Hearne,  on  musk-ox,  49 
Heath,    Richard,   on   Anabaptism, 

225,  226 

Hedin,  Sven,  on  Lob-nor,  119  n. 
Hegel,   Carl,   history    of    German 

mediasval  cities,  189;  their  origin, 

326 

Heimschaften,  180 
Heinrich  V.,  201 
Henry  VII.,  234 
Henry  VIII.,  enclosures,  234  ;  ruins 

the  guilds,  263 
Heribert,  St.,  167 
Hetairiai,  323,  324 
Himalaya  natives,  84 
Hippopotamus,  societies  of,  50 
Hirdmen,  156 

Historical  documents,   chiefly  re- 
lating struggles,  116 
History,  begins  several  times  anew 

with  the  tribe,  117 
Hobbes,  xv  ;  war  of  each  against 

all,   77  ;    his  followers,   78 ;    his 

main  error,  78 
Hodder,   Edwin,  Life  of  Seventh 

Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  288,  290 
Hohenzollern,  247,  248 
Holm,  Capt,  on  Greenland  Eski- 
mos, 96 
Horses,  46  ;  half  wild  in  Asia,  46  ; 

effects    of   droughts    upon,   47 ; 

wild  in  Tibet,  47  ;  origin  of,  66  ; 

after  a  drought,  73 
Hottentots,  90,  91,  228 
Houzeau,  on  animal  sociability,  6  ; 

prairie-wolves,     41  ;     sociability 

diminishes  in  decaying  species, 

53 


INDEX 


337 


Howitt,  A.  W.,  Australians,  85,  92 
Huber,  Pierre,  on  ants,  12,  13,  14, 
15  ;  their  play,  55  ;  Mr.  Suther- 
land's appreciation  of,  303 
Hudson,  W.  H.,  on  viscachas,  46  ; 
on    pigs,    50 ;     on    music     and 
dancing   in    Nature,  54,  55,  56, 
302  ;  want  of  animal  population 
in  South  America,3O9;  adaptation 
to  avoid  competition,  309-312 
Hugues,  Archbishop,  201 
Humber  district,  birds  in,  23 
Humboldt,  Alexander,  on  tee-tees, 

51 

Huns,  136 
Hunting  associations  :  of  male  and 

female,   19;   among  eagles,  20; 

of  kites,   21  ;    of    pelicans,    23  ; 

lions,  40 ;  in  dogs'  tribe,  40  ;  of 

wolves,   40  ;  prairie-wolves,   41  ; 

foxes,  41  ;  hyenas,  41 
Hunting  in  common,  141 
Hussite  wars,  219 
Hutchinson,  H.    N.,  on   marriage 

customs,  319 
Hiiter,  E.,  on  foxes,  41 
Huxley,  on  struggle  for  life,  xiv,  4, 

5 ;    origin    of    society,    54 ;    on 

Hobbesian  war,  78 

Ice  age,  extension  of  ice  cap,  81 

Iceland,  Allthing,  158 

Ihering,  Dr.,  on  importance  of  free 

mutual  support,  284  n, 
He  de  France,  217 
Inama-Sternegg,   on  formation   of 

private    property    in   land,    125, 

157 

India,  26,  29  ;  village  community 
in,  122,  123;  guilds  in  ancient 
India,  169 

Indians  of  Vancouver,  100  n. 

Individualism  preached  in  modern 
society,  228 

Infanticide  with  the  savages,  101 

Innes,  Cosmo,  on  mediaeval  Scot- 
land 210  n. 

Innocent  III.,  220 

Insectivores,  associations,  42,  Ap- 
pendix IV,  306 

Intellectual  development  due  to 
sociability,  27 

International  law,  137 

Inter- tribal  relations,  113 

Inventions,  mediaeval,  214 


Ipswich  merchant  guild,  185 

Ireland,  village  community  in,  121 

Iron,  cost  of,  in  early  mediaeval 
times,  156 

Irrigation,  co-operative,  in  France, 
246 

Isolation  of  species,  65 

Italian  art,  174 

Italian  cities,  178;  struggles 
against  nobles,  202 ;  slavery 
maintained,  203 

Italian  language,  215 

Ivanisheff,  Prof.,  on  village  com- 
munity in  Russia,  123  n. 

Izvestia  of  Russian  Geographica 
Society,  95 

Jackals,  hunting  associations  of,  41 

Jackdaws  chasing  kites,  25 

Jacobsen  on  Bering  Strait  Eskimos, 
98  n, 

Jacqueries,  219 

Jagdschutz'verein,  280 

Janssen,  history  of  Germany,  122 
«.,  162,  170  ».,  189  ».,  193,  194 
».,  195  ;  225 

Jerdon,  Dr.,  on  ants,  14  n. ;  jack- 
daws and  kites,  26 

Jobbe'-Duval,  village  community  in 
Annam,  127 

Joint  family  as  a  phasis  of  civiliza- 
tion, 123  ;  with  the  Ossetes,  146  ; 
with  the  South  Slavonians,  320, 
321 

Joint  household.    See  Joint  Family. 

"Joint  team"  in  Wales,  127;  in 
Caucasia,  147  #. 

Judge  in  mediaeval  times,  175  n. 

Justice,  sense  of,  developed  by 
sociability,  59 

Kabardia,  134  n. 

Kabyles,  village  community  with, 
122  seq. ;  their  institutions,  141- 
149 ;  return  to  tribal  law,  142 ; 
djemmda,  142;  work  in  common, 
143 ;  rich  and  poor,  143  ;  aid  in 
travels,  144 ;  feeding  destitutes, 
144  ;  anaya  custom,  145;  the  {of, 
145,  160 

Kada,  common  hunt,  141 

Kafir  laws,  148  n. 

Kaimani  Bay,  Papuas,  93  n. 

Kallsen,  Dr.  Otto,  on  German 
mediaeval  cities,  167,  189  ».,  190 
z 


338 


INDEX 


».;    on    mortmain,    201 ;    cities 

the  makers   of   national    unity, 

206  n. 

Kalmucks,  customary  law,  131 
Kamilaroi-speaking  Australians,  85, 

86 

Kamtchatka  bears,  42 
Karl  the  Great,  164 
Kaufmann,    early    significance    of 

"King,"  1 6 1,  162 
Kautsky,  K.,  on  sixteenth-century 

communism,  225 
Kavelin,  123  n. 
Kegelbriider,  279 
Keller,  on  Anabaptism,  225 
Kerguelen  Island,  25 
Kessler,  Prof.,  x ;  lecture  on  the  law 

of  Mutual  Aid,  6-8 ;  our  imperfect 

knowledge    of    mammals,     19 ; 

Societies  of  youngsters,  307 
Kharouba,  142 
Khevsoures,  return  to  tribal  law, 

146 ;  women  stopping  quarrels, 

147 

Khingan,  Great,  Little,  48,  49 
Khoudadoff,  N.,on  common  culture, 

127  ;  on  Khevsoure  common  law, 

146 

Kihlakunta,  122 
Kilkenny  ordinance,  184 
King,  double  origin  of  authority  of 

the,    157,    158  ;    duke  equal  to, 

1 60;  early  meaning  of  the  kong, 

161;  Canute,  161;  compensation 

for  a  slain  king,  161 
Kingsley,    Mary,    on    the     Fans, 

109  n. 

Kinship  systems,  85 
Kirk,  T.  W.,  on  house-sparrows,  26 
Kites,    sociability,    21 ;     attacking 

eagles,   25;    chasing  the  hawk, 

25 
Klaus,    on    village  community   in 

Russia,  123  n. 

Kluckohn,  on  God's  Peace,  168 
Knights  of  Labour,  268 
Knowles,  James,  xiv,  xix 
Knyaz,  157,  159 
Kohl,  horses  against  wolves,  41 
Kolben,  P.,  on  Hottentots,  90,  91 
Koloshes,  95 
Konigswarter,  on  primitive  justice, 

131;  on  compensation,  on  fredy 

133 
Konung,  kong,  161 


Koskinen,  early  institutions  of 
Fins,  122  ». 

Kostomaroff, Prof.  N.,early  Russian 
history,  162  ;  origin  of  autocracy, 
1 66  ;  twelfth-century  Rational- 
ism, 169  ;  free  cities,  189  n. 

Koto.,  122,  150 

Kovalevsky,  Prof.  Maxim,  on  tribal 
origin  of  family,  79,  85  ;  on 
primitive  law,  85  ;  on  origin  of 
family,  87  ;  on  village  commun- 
ity in  Britain,  121  n.;  in  Russia, 
123  n.\  evolution  of  family  and 
property,  123  «.,  125  n.;  Ossetes' 
hay-stacks,  1 29 ;  compensation 
laws,  134;  origins  of  feudalism, 
146  ;  on  cities  of  Bohemia,  166  ; 
on  Russian  feudalism,  167  n. ; 
tribal  marriage,  313,  315 

Kozloff,  P.,  fight  with  monkeys  in 
Tibet,  52 

Kudinsk  Steppe.     See  Buryates 

Kulischer,  on  primitive  trade,  igon. 

Kursk,  communal  culture,  256 

Kuttenberg  ordinance,  195 

La  Borne,  245 

Labour,  conditions  of,  in  free  cities, 
193-196  ;  mediaeval  congresses 
of,  196 

Labourers,  obstacles  to  their  com- 
binations, 263  ;  wages  settled  by 
State,  265  ;  Combination  Laws 
repealed  in  1825,  266;  Robert 
Owen's  Trades'  Union,  266; 
prosecutions,  266,  267 ;  modern 
unions,  267  ;  strikes,  267-269  ; 
part  taken  in  political  agitation, 
270 ;  in  socialist  work,  270,  271  ; 
co-operation,  271  seq. 

Lake-dwellings,  83 

Lakes,  bird-nesting  on  their 
shores,  32 

Lamarckians,  65 

Lambert,  Rev.  J.  M.,  on  guild  life, 
169  n. 

Lamprecht,  on  Franconian  law  and 
economics,  156;  on  mediasval 
economics  in  Germany,  210  n, 

Lanessan,  J.  L.,  lecture  on  Mutual 
Aid,  xii,  7 

Langobard  institutions,  122  n. 

Laon,  commune  of,  206 ;  cathedral, 
213 

Laonnais,  federation  of  villages,  206 


INDEX 


339 


La  Plata,  309 

Lapwings,  attack  of  a  buzzard,  25  ; 

their  dances,  56 ;  adaptations  to 

varied  food,  310 
Laudes,   on  village  community  in 

Annam,  127 
Laveleye,    "  Primitive    Property," 

122,  239  ».,  250  n. 
Law,   customary,   kept  in    certain 

families,  157-159  ;  recited  at  All- 
things,  158 

Law,  Sir  Hugh,  on  Dayaks,  109  n. 
Lawyers,  their  influence,   219  ;  of 

Bologna,  220  n. 
Leagues,  of  towns,  204 ;  of  villages, 

206 

Lebret,  on  mediaeval  Venice,  180 
Lendenfeld,  R.,  on  cacadoos,  29 
Leo  and  Botta,  161, 162, 180,  189  n. 
Lesholztag,  248 
Letourneau,   on  common    culture, 

127 

Letourneux,  on  Kabyles,  141-145 
Le  Vaillant,  5,  22 
Lezghines,     having    joint     feudal 

rights,  146,  147 
Lichtenstein,    journeys    in    South 

Africa,  89 

Lifeboat  Association,  275 
Ltmulus,  n 
Lincecum,  Dr.,  on  harvesting  ants, 

14  n. 

Linden,  Herman  van  den,  on  mer- 
chant guilds  in  Netherlands,  326 
Linlithgow,  183  «. 
Linnaeus,  on  aphides  and  ants,  14 
Lipari  Islands,  126 
Little  Russians,  village  community 

with  the,  253 

Lives,  village  community  of,  122 
Loans  in  mediaeval  cities,  220 
Lombardian  law,  161 
Lombardian  League,  205 
Lombardy,  struggle  against  nobles, 

202  ;  canals,  213 
London,  communal   purchases  in, 

182  ».,  183-186 
Long    houses      (balaf)^      94 ;     of 

Eskimos,  96 ;  316 
Lorris,  commune,  178 
Louis  le  Gros,  168  ». 
Louis  XIV.,  230 
Love  and  sociability,  xiii 
Ld"usogmathry  158 
Lozere,  245 


Lubbock,  Sir  John,  on  ants,  bees, 
and  wasps,  12  ;  palaeolithic  men, 
80,  8 1  ;  Denmark  shell-heaps, 
82  ;  neolithic  men — not  degener- 
ated specimens  of  mankind,  83  ; 
on  tribal  origin  of  family,  79,  85  ; 
on  Hottentots,  90 ;  tribal  mar- 
riage, 313-320 

Liibeck,  199  n. 

Lucca,  203  «.,  205 

Luchaire,  A.,  on  French  mediaeval 
cities  and  guilds,  162,  168,  177, 
189  «.,  20 1 ;  on  village  leagues, 
206,  207 

Lukchun  depression,  antiquities  of, 
119 

Lumholtz,  on  North  Queensland 
natives,  92 

Luro,  village  community  in  Annam, 
127 

Lutchitzky,  Prof.,  on  village  com- 
munity, 122  ».,  203  ». ;  on  slavery 
in  Florence,  219  ». 

Lutetia,  324 

Luxembourg,  Jardin  du,  sparrows, 
24 

Lyons,  unsuccessful  revolution  of 
minor  crafts,  199  ». ;  duration  of 
struggles  for  emancipation,  200  n. 

MacCook,  on  ants,  14  n.  ;  nations 
of  ants,  1 8 

Maclean,  on  common  law  of  Kafirs, 
148 

MacLennan,  J.  F.,  on  tribal  origin 
of  family,  79 ;  Studies  in 
Ancient  History ',  85,  313-315 

Madrid,  216 

Maeterlinck,  on  bees,  304 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  on  primitive 
institutions,  79 ;  on  village  com- 
munity in  Britain,  122  ;  in  India, 
123  ».,  130 ;  on  common  law,  132 ; 
origin  of  international  law,  137  ; 
village  community,  157;  on  com- 
munal lands,  237 

Mainz,  205,  207  n. 

Malayans,  common  culture,  129 

Mammals,  prevalence  of  sociable 
species,  38 

Manchuria,  vii 

Manitoba,  130 

Marin,  on  mediaeval  Venice,  180 

Market  in  mediaeval  city,  Appendix 
XI,  326  ;  its  protection,  189  seq. 


340 


INDEX 


Markoff,  E.,  on  Shakhseven  com- 
mon law,  134  n. 

Marmots,  43,  44 

Marriage-institutions  of  savages, 
85  seq.  ;  institutions  of  Eskimos, 
96 ;  exchange  of  wives,  96 ; 
"communal,"  313-320;  com- 
pound, 318 ;  restrictions  abol- 
ished during  festivals,  318  ;  so- 
lemnities, 319 

Marshall,  on  communal  lands,  237 

Martial,  L.  F.,  on  Cape  Horn 
aborigines,  95 

Master  and  Servant  Act,  267 

Maurer,  on  village  community, 
122  n.,  157,  313;  common  cul- 
ture, 126;  communal  jurisdiction, 
132;  supremacy  of  folkmote,  165  ; 
on  evolution  of  village  community 
into  city,  165  n.;  mediaeval  cities, 
189  n. 

Maures,  invasion,  217 

Maynoff,  on  Mordovian  common 
law,  135,  136 

Mediaeval  cities :  uprise  in  the 
tenth  to  twelfth  centuries,  163  ; 
its  unanimity,  163  ;  co-jurations, 
163  ;  double  origin,  164  ;  folk- 
mote  and  defensor,  166  ;  "  God's 
Peace,"  167  ;  foundations  of  com- 
mercial and  international  law, 
1 68  ;  fine  monuments,  168  ;  the 
guilds,  169;  their  origin,  170; 
their  functions,  171  ;  their  diver- 
sity, 173;  secondary  importance 
of  yearly  festival,  174,  175  ;  fed- 
eration of  parishes  and  guilds  in 
the  city,  176;  extension  of  the 
revolt  all  over  Europe,  178  ;  self- 
jurisdiction,  179 ;  sovereignty, 
179;  labour,  position  of,  181 ; 
communal  buying  of  necessaries 
of  life,  182 ;  for  the  guilds,  185  ; 
variety  in,  187  ;  the  market,  189  ; 
growth  of  the  merchant  oligarchy, 
190 ;  conceptions  about  honesty 
in  work,  191  ;  master  and  com- 
panion, 193  ;  wages  of  the  latter, 
193  ;  hours  of  labour,  194  ;  eight 
hours'  day,  193  ;  guild  and  town 
militia,  197  ;  "minor  arts,"  198  ; 
battles  fought,  199  ;  wars  against 
feudal  barons,  200;  the  surround- 
ing peasants,  202  ;  leagues  of 
cities,  204,  205 ;  unions  of  vil- 


lages, 206 ;  commercial  treaties, 
207 ;  results  achieved  in,  209  ; 
prosperity,  209 ;  French,  Ger- 
man, Italian,  Russian  (literature), 
189  n.  ;  as  arbiters,  207  ;  archi- 
tecture, 209  ;  city  buildings,  212  ; 
growth  of  arts  and  industries, 
213  ;  progress  in  science,  214  ; 
causes  of  decay,  215  ;  ideas  of 
sanctity  of  kings  spread  by 
Church  and  lawyers,  217  ;  city 
oligarchy,  217  ;  city  and  village, 
218;  principles  of  centralization, 
220 ;  influence  of  Church  and 
Roman  law,  220 ;  example  of 
Florence,  221 

Mediterranean,  37 

Medley,  Mr.,  91 

Meitzen,  on  Swiss  communes,  239  n. 

Mennonites,    village    community, 

255 

Mercati  personati,  192 
Merchant  guild,  183, 185, 191  n. ;  H. 

van  den  Linden  on,  327 
Merghen,  48 

Merovingian  France,  137 
Mexico,   religious  cannibalism   in, 

105  ;  common  culture,  129    . 
Miaskowski,    on     struggle    within 

communes,  218  ».,  239 
Mice,   destruction   by  changes  of 

weather,  71 
Michel  Angelo,  213 
Michel  et,  156,  162 
Middendorff,  A.  Th.,  100  n. 
Middle  Russia,  village-community 

movement,  254 
Migrations :    fallow    deer    on   the 

Amur,  viii  ;  of  birds,  32-38 ;  of 

nations,  causes  of,  1 1 8 
Miklukho-Maclay,  on   Papuas,  94, 

95  ;   savages  sharing  food,  112; 

savage  "  classes,"  316;  clubs,  324 
Milan,  168,  204  ». 
Miler,    Ernest,    on    South    Slavo- 
nian joint  family,  320 
Milgaard  shell-heaps,  82 
Miller,    Prof.    Orest,   on    common 

law  of  Caucasian  mountaineers, 

134 
Miners,  mediaeval,  195  ;  Radstock, 

269 ;    Bristol,    Yorkshire,    269 ; 

Rhonda  Valley,  276;  support  of 

orphans,  288 
Minne,  169 


INDEX 


Mir,  126 

Missour,  305 

Moeller,  Alfred,  on  ants'  gardens, 
14  n. 

Moffat,  89  ;  on  self-sacrifice  of  old 
relatives  with  the  savages,  104 

Moggridge,  J.  T.,  on  harvesting 
ants  and  trapdoor  spiders,  12, 
14  n. 

Molucca  crab,  endeavours  to  lift  a 
comrade,  n 

Mongolia,  46,  119 

Mongols,  5  ;  village  community,  122, 
138  ;  aid  to  traveller  obligatory, 
145,  160  ;  invasion,  217 

Monkeys,  sociability  of,  50-52 ;  fight 
of  hamadryas  against  Brehm, 
52  ;  against  the  Kozloff  expedi- 
tion in  Tibet,  52  ;  family  habits 

of,  315 
Montana,  36 

Montauge,  The'ron  de,  231 
Montbeliard,  201 
Montrozier,   on   common    culture, 

127 

Moodie,  91 
Moors,  English,  72 
Moral  feeling  developed  in  animals 

by  sociability,  58,  59 
Morality,  Aleoute  code  of,  99 
Moravia,  communities,  225 
Morbihan,  127 
Mordovians,    common    law,    135, 

136;  aids,  143 
Morgan,  Lewis  H.,  on  tribal  origin 

of  family,  79  ;  Ancient  Society ', 

85 ;  on  "Hawaian"  group-system, 

88  «.,   123  n. ;  tribal  marriage, 

3i3-3i6 
Morocco,  144 
Mortmain,  201 
Moscou,  Bulletin  des  Naturalistes 

de,T2. 
Moscow,    167    n.,    216,    217,   257, 

304 

Motacilla  alba.     See  Wagtails 
Mother's  clan,  child  belonging  to, 

3i8 
Mothers,  mutual  support  amongst, 

285 

Mount  Tendre,  18 
Mugan  Steppe.  134  n. 
Miiller  and  Temminch,  on  Dayaks, 

no  n. 
Miinster.  225 


Miinzinger,  on  common  law  of 
Bogos,  148 

Musk-ox,  49 

Musk-rats,  44 

Mutual  Aid :  Kessler  on,  x ;  law 
of,  x ;  Goethe  on,  xi ;  works  on, 
xii ;  M.  A.  and  love,  xiii ;  as  a 
law  of  Nature,  xiv  ; — institutions, 
xv  ;  struggle  against,  xvi ;  M.  A. 
and  individualism,  xvii ;  "  M.  A.," 
articles  on,  xviii ;  lecture  by 
Kessler,  6  ;  lecture  by  Lanessan, 
7  ;  Buchner  on,  7  ;  among  ani- 
mals, 1-75  ;  among  savages,  76- 
114;  among  barbarians,  115- 
152  ;  in  the  mediaeval  city,  153- 
222 ;  amongst  ourselves,  223- 
292 ;  tendency  in  history,  1 16, 
117;  tendency  developed  in  the 
mediaeval  city,  154;  destruction 
of  institutions  by  State,  226-229 

"  Mysteries ''  and  guilds,  325 

"Mystery,"  192 

Napoleon  III.,  233 

Nassau,  248 

Nasse,  on  the  village  community 
in  Britain,  121  n.  ;  on  communal 
lands,  234,  237,  313 

Nature,  quoted,  100  n. 

Nautce,  guild  of,  322 

Naviglio  Grande,  213  «. 

Navy  in  free  cities,  209 

Nazaroff,  on  common  hunts,  141 

Neath,  183  «. 

NtcTophorus,  10 

Negaria,  149 

Negroes,  common  culture  with,  127 

Neolithic  man's  relics,  81,  82 

Nesting  associations  of  birds,  32-3  5, 
304-306 

Netherlands,  anabaptism  in,  226 ; 
agrarian  inquest,  327 ;  on  mutual 
support  in  villages,  327  ;  mer- 
chant guilds,  328 

Nets'-king,  161 

New  Caledonia,  common  culture 
in, 127 

New  England,  130 

New  Guinea,  93 

New  Hebrides  savages,  101 

Newton,  Prof.  A.,  on  thrushes 
61  n. 

New  Zealand,  26 ;  multiplication 
of  pigs  and  rabbits,  68 


342 


INDEX 


Nitzsch,  162,  206  n, 

Nobles  and  cities  in  Italy,  202 

Nordenskjold,  A.  E.,  on  bird- 
mountains,  33 

Nordmann,  on  falcons,  22 

Normans,  invasions  of,  159,  165 

Northamptonshire,  237 

Notre  Dame  de  Paris,  212 

Novgorod,  communal  depots,  184  ; 
"  Sovereign  N."  carries  on  com- 
merce, 185  ;  povolniki)  192  ; 
leagues,  206 

Numa,  321,  324 

Nuremberg,  210,  214  n.  ;  learning 
and  technical  skill,  215 

Nys,  Prof.  E.,  on  military  execu- 
tions, 108  n. ;  on  Old  Irish  law, 
135  ;  on  origin  of  international 
law,  137 

O'Brien,  on  Swiss  villages,  240  «. 
Ochenkowski,  on  mediaeval   Eng- 
land, 182  ;  communal  lands,  234, 

264  n. 
Old  relatives,  self-sacrifice  of,  103  ; 

Moffat  and  Erskine  on  it,  104 
"  Old  Transformist."   See  Tcherny- 

shevsky 

Orang-utan,  a  decaying  species,  52 
Orkhon,  inscriptions,  119 
Ornithological  Society,  280 
Orsini,  The,  219 
Ory,  village  community  in  Annam, 

127 
Ossetes,  hay-stacks  free  in  spring, 

129  ;  compensation  laws  of,  133  ; 

common  law  of,  146 
Ostyaks,  91  ;  mild  character,  100  n. 
Oucagas,  The,  149 
Oulous  of  Buryates,  122,  138,  139, 

140 

Outlaws,  131 
Over-population,  animal,  not  proved, 

68 ;    natural    checks    to,   68-72, 

Appendix  V,  307.  Also  see  Checks 
Overstolzes,  The,  219 
Ovides  family,  sociability  of,  48 
Owen,  Robert,  Trades'  Union,  266 
Oxfordshire,  237 

Pacific  Islands,  94,  95 

Padua,  174  #.,  205 

Pa  frey,  on  village  communities  in 

New  England,  130 
Painters,  guilds  of,  174 


Pappenheim    on    Danish    guilds, 

175  n. 
Papuas,  84,  91  ;  description  by  G. 

Bink,  93,  94  ;  by  M.  Maclay,  94, 

95 

Parental  love  with  savages,  101  n. 
Parentship  relations  among  savages, 

317 

Paris,  167  n. ;  mediaeval  conditions 

of  labour,   195  n. ;   guilds,   198  ; 

Notre  Dame,  212  ;  a  royal  city, 

216;  early  guilds,  322  ;  mediaeval 

guilds,  324 

Paris  Exhibition,  bees  at,  17 
"  Parricide,"      supposed,      among 

savages,  103 
Parrots,  sociability  of,  27-31  ;  with 

jays   and  crows,  29 ;    vigilance, 

29  ;  high  intelligence,  30 ;  mutual 

attachment,  30 
Patagonia,  84 
Pavloft"  (Pawlow),  Marie,  on  origin 

of  modern  horse,  67 
Peasant  War,  219,  225  ;  massacres 

to  stop  it,  225  «.,  226 
Pelicans,  fishing  associations,  23 
People,  constructive  genius  of  the, 

162 
Periodical  distributions  of  wealth, 

97  ;   of  land,  98  ;  remittance  of 

debts,  98 
Perrens,  history  of  Florence,  168, 

198 
Perrier,   Ed.,  on  animal  colonies, 

53 

Perty,  Maximilian,  7,  24  ;  on  com- 
passion among  animals,  59 

Peru,  60;  village  community,  127 

Pfeiffer,  Ida,  on  Dayaks,  109  «.,  1 10 

Phear,  Sir  John,  village  in  India, 
123  n. 

Philippe  le  Bel,  321 

Phillip,  Count  of  Flanders,  177 

Phillips- Wolley,  Clive,  on  big  game 
shooting,  47 

Phylloxera,  246 

Piacenza,  205 

Piepers,  M.  C.,  on  mass-flights  of 
butterflies,  301 

Pine-moth,  71 

Pisa,  1 68,  204  n. 

Pistoia,  205 

Pitt  ay  a,  122 

Plata,  La,  W.  H.  Hudson  on,  54, 
56 


INDEX 


343 


Play  of  animals,  307 

Plimsoll,  Samuel,  on  life  of  poor, 

218  ;  on  altruism  with  poor  and 

rich,  289 

Plovers,  ringed,  23 
Plutarch  on  guilds,  321,  324 
Polyakoff,  Ivan,  on  struggle  for  life, 

9  ;  on  gulls,  35,  47 
Polynesian  Reminiscences,  107 
Polynesians,  87 
Poor,  The,  mutual  support  among, 

284  seq. 

Poor  and  rich,  181 
Population,  animal,  want  of,  309 
Porter,    list    of    Enclosure    Acts, 

235 

Posnikoff,  Prof.  A.,  123  n. 

Post,  A.,  on  tribal  origin  of  family, 
79,  85  ;  on  clan-marriage,  87  n.  ; 
on  exchange  of  wives,  96  n.  ; 
common  culture,  127  ;  compen- 
sation laws  of  Africa,  134 ;  com- 
mon law  of  African  stems,  148, 
149 ;  development  of  family 
rights,  149;  on  Sumatra,  150, 
260  ;  origin  of  family,  313-315 

Post-glacial  period,  84 

Post-pliocene  lakes,  118  n. 

Powell,  on  the  village  community 
in  Sumatra,  150 

Prague,  167 

Prairie-dogs,  societies  of,  43  ;  keep 
sentries  in  Zoological  Gardens, 

307 

Primitive  men,  supposed  war 
between,  76  seq. ;  their  tribes, 

?8 
Prisoner,  escaped,  self-sacrifice  of, 

278  «. 

Pritchard,  W.  T,  on  Polynesian 
cannibalism,  107 

Private  property  destroyed  on  grave 
in  China,  320 

Private  property  in  land,  125  n. 

Prjevalsky  on  sociable  bears  in 
Tibet,  306 

Prussia,  destruction  of  village  com- 
munity, 235,  249 

Pskov,  city  walls,  160  ;  commune 
of,  178;  communal  depots,  184  ; 
"  Sovereign  P."  carries  on  com- 
merce, 185  ;  leagues,  206 

Purchases  by  the  guild.     See  Guilds 

Purra,  259 

Pyrenees,  23 


Quades,  136 
Quagga,  47 

Rabbits,  46 

Radstock  miners,  269 

Rails,  their  dances,  56 

Rambaud,  history  of  Russia,  167  n.  ; 
on  early  relations  between  Nor- 
mans and  Slavonians,  322 

Ranke,  Leopold,  on  Roman  law, 
216  n. 

Rationalism,  twelfth  century's,  169 

Ratisbon,  167 

Rats,  mutual  support,  44 ;  brown 
and  black,  62 

Ravenna,  168 

Reclus,  Elie,  on  savages' reluctance 
towards  infanticide,  102 

Reclus,  Elisee,  on  Hottentots,  90 ; 
on  Dayaks,  1 10  n. 

Redemption  of  land,  251  n. 

Red  Indians,  94  ;  common  hunts, 
141 

Reform,  character  of  its  beginnings, 
216,  224 

Rein,  on  village  community  with 
Finns,  122  n. 

Renaissance,  twelfth  century's,  169 

Republic,  Third,  in  France,  233 

Rheims,  213 

Rhine,  league  of  cities  on,  205 

Rhinoceros,  societies  of,  56 

Rhonda  Valley  miners,  276 

Rietschel,  on  market  in  mediaeval 
city,  326 

Rink,  Dr.  H.,  on  Eskimos,  96,  97, 
98 

Riparian  law,  1 56  «. 

Roads  built  by  village  communi- 
ties, 129 

Robert,  King,  201 

Rocquain,  F.,  on  twelfth  century 
Renaissance,  169 

Rogers,  Thorold,  mediaeval  con- 
ditions of  labour,  194,  195 

Romanes,  Georges,  7,  12;  agricul- 
ture of  ants,  14  n. ;  sociable 
jackals,  41  ;  sympathy  in  mon- 
keys, 51 

Roman  law,  its  growth,  125 ;  changes 
the  sense  attached  to  the  King, 
161  ;  renewal  of  study  of,  216 ; 
Christian  Church  accepting  its 
principles,  220 

Roman  "  municipia,''  165  n. 


344 


INDEX 


Rome,  Imperial,  125  n.  ;  mediaeval, 
165  ;  struggles  against  nobles, 
202 

Roncaglia,  congress  of,  220  n. 

Ross,  Denman,  121 

Rossus,  Historia,  234 

Rostock,  199  n. 

Rothari,  code  of,  161 

Rouen,  201 

Rousseau,  J.  J.,  Huxley's  apprecia- 
tion of,  5  ;  on  origin  of  society, 
54,  77  ;  idealizes  savages,  ill 

Royal  cities,  167  ».,  216,  324 

Rudeck,  Wilhelm,  on  marriage 
customs  in  Germany,  319 

Rumohr,  on  proletariat  in  colonies 
of  Toscana,  203  n. 

Russia :  eleventh  century,  137  ; 
annals  about  calling  Norman 
princes,  159,  165  «.  ;  independent 
cities,  1 66  ;  feudal  period,  i66«. ; 
history  of,  167  n.  ;  criminal  law, 
173  ;  making  of,  by  artils,  174  ; 
village  co-operation  in,  250  seg. 

Russian  Geological  Survey,  81 

Russian  peasants,  saying  of  old 
people,  103 

Sacrifices  made  by  workers,  265- 
271 

Sagas :  on  blood  revenge,  133 ; 
Story  of  Burnt  Njal,  135 

Saint-Le'on,  Dr.  E.  Martin,  history 
of  trade  unions  in  France,  195  n.  ; 
on  Roman  guilds,  321  ;  on  Paris 
guilds,  324 

St.  Ouen,  213 

Sakhsevens,  134  «. 

Sales  by  the  guild.   See  Guilds 

Saleve  mountain,  18 

Salic  law,  156  n. 

Samara,  255 

Samoyedes,  kindness  of,  91  ;  mild 
character,  100  n. 

Sanderlings,  23 

Sarmates,  136 

"  Savage-belt,"  84 

Savages,  xv ;  described  as  the 
gentlest  people,  91  ;  idealized  by 
Rousseau,  111  ;  identify  them- 
selves with  the  clan,  112 

Savannahs,  34,  36 

Savonarola,  Gieronimo,  221 

Saxon  barbarian  codes,  134 
170,  207 


Scandinavians,  119;  village  com- 
munity of,  122 

Schaar,  197 

Schmoller,  on  Strassburg  crafts, 
199  n. 

Schoffen,  180 

S choice  of  warriors,  155-157,  159- 
161 

Schonberg,  mediaeval  conditions  of 
labour,  194  ;  craft  guilds,  196 

Schrenck,  Leopold,  100  n. 

Schultz,  Dr.  Alwin,  mediaeval  con- 
ditions of  labour,  195  n. 

Schurtz,  H.,  on  age  classes  and 
secret  societies  of  savages,  324 

Science  in  free  cities,  209,  214,  215 

Scot,  Michael,  215 

Scotland,  sociable  weasels  in,  40 ; 
village  community  in,  121  j  com- 
mon culture,  126,  187 ;  roads, 
210,217 

Sea-hen  (Buphagus)  chasing  gulls, 
24 

Secret  societies  among  savages, 
88  n.,  325  seq. 

"  Sections  "  in  mediaeval  city,  179 

Seebohm,  F.,  on  village  community 
in  Britain,  121,  122, 157  ;  on  com- 
mon culture,  126 ;  on  Enclosure 
Acts,  234,  313 

Seebohm,  H.,  on  migrations,  23 ; 
bird-mountains,  34 ;  gatherings 
of  birds  before  nest-building,  38 

Self-jurisdiction,  190 

Self-sacrifice,  traditions  among 
fishermen,  miners,  277  ;  of  an 
escaped  prisoner,  278  n. 

Se"michon,  L.,  on  God's  Peace,  168 

Semites,  primitive,  87 

Senlis,  177 

Serfs,  their  guilds,  173  ;  revolts  of, 

173 
Sergievitch,  Prof.,  on  folkmote  and 

prince  in  Russia,  166  n. 
Servius  Tullius,  321 
Seyfferlitz,  33 
Shaftesbury,  seventh  Earl   of,  on 

flower-girls,  288  n.  ;  on  purchase 

and  slaughter  of  children,  290 
Sheffield,  72 
Shell-heaps,  82 

Shooting  amongst  moderns,  107  ». 
Siberia,  animal  life  in,  vii ;  birds 

of,  23  ;  animal  population  of,  38, 

46;  lakes,  118  n. 


INDEX 


345 


Sicambers,  136 

Sienna,  203  n. 

Stgnorta,  221 

Silesia,  village  community,  235, 
249 

Singing  in  concert,  of  birds,  56 

Sioux,  91 

Sismondi,  on  Italian  republics, 
189  n.  ;  wars  between  cities,  204  ; 
agriculture  in  Tuscany,  210; 
Lombardy  canals,  their  subse- 
quent decay,  213 ;  growth  of 
royal  authority,  216  n. 

Skraa  of  Danish  guild,  171 

Slavery  in  Italian  cities,  203,  219 

Slavonians,  primitive,  87,  119; 
village  community  of,  122,  123, 
131  «.,  159  ;  cities,  220 

Smith,  Adam,  on  State  interven- 
tion in  corporations,  197  n. 

Smith,  Miss  Toulmin,  on  woman 
in  guilds,  172  n.  ;  on  guilds,  196  n. 

Smith,  Mr.  Toulmin,  English 
guilds,  172  n.  ;  Cambridge  guilds, 
175  ».,  196 «.,  199 «. ;  confiscation 
of  guilds'  property,  263,  264 

Sociability,  greater  in  regions  un- 
inhabited by  man,  20 ;  with  all 
animals  before  the  appearance 
of  man,  52  ;  cultivated  for  love 
of  society,  54  ;  "joy  of  life,"  54  ; 
distinctive  feature  of  animal 
world,  55  ;  expressed  in  dancing 
and  singing,  56  ;  best  weapon  in 
struggle  for  life,  57  ;  develops 
moral  instincts,  58  ;  also  sense  of 
justice,  59  ;  and  sympathy,  60 

Socialism,  sacrifices  for,  270 

Societies,  opposed  by  State,  227  ; 
growing  now  for  all  possible 
purposes,  279 

Society,  pre-human  origin  of,  54 

Sodalitia,  323 

Sohm,  on  Teutonic  village  com- 
munity, 122  n. 

Soissons,  177,  206 

Sokolovsky,  123  n. 

Soudan,  village  community,  122 

Souslik  of  South  Russia,  43  ; 
sudden  disappearance  of,  72 

Spain,  36 

Sparrows  warning  each  other,  24  ; 
Mr.  Gurney  on,  24 ;  chasing  a 
hawk,  26 

Speier,  205 


Spencer,  Herbert,  on  struggle  for 
life,  xv ;  on  animal  colonies,  53  ; 
influence  of  surroundings,  65 

Sproat,  Gilbert,  on  Vancouver 
Indians,  98  «.,  100  «. 

Squirrels,  42 

Stansbury,  Capt.,  on  compassion 
among  pelicans,  59,  60 

Starcke,  Prof.  C.  N.,  on  primitive 
family,  313,  314 

Starkenberg,  province,  247 

State,  interference  in  corporations, 
196  seq. ;  growth  of,  in  sixteenth 
century,  216;  aided  by  Church, 
217  ;  its  ideals  within  the 
cities,  218  ;  its  victory  over  the 
cities,  225  ;  spoliation  of  guilds, 
226 ;  absorption  of  all  their 
functions,  227 ;  destruction  of 
mutual-aid  institutions,  228  ; 
interference  in  guilds,  264  seq.  • 
its  ideals  favoured,  278 

Steffen,  Gustaf,  on  mediaeval  con- 
ditions of  labour  in  England, 
194  n. 

Steller  on  polar  foxes,  51  ;  on 
Kamchatka  bears,  42 

Steppes,  Russian  and  Siberian, 
lakes  of,  32,  47 

Stieda,  W.,  on  Hansa  towns,  196 
«.,  207  «. 

Stobbe,  on  "movable"  property, 
124 

Stoltze,  on  Dayaks,  no 

Strassburg,  199  ».,  205 

Strikes  prosecuted,  265  ;  right  to, 
slightly  won  in  England,  267 

Struggle  for  life,  its  proper  sense, 
v  ;  checks  to  multiplication,  vii, 
viii ;  "a  law  of  Nature,"  ix ; 
Kessler  on,  x  ;  its  philosophical 
importance,  I ;  metaphorical 
sense,  2 ;  Darwin  on,  2  ;  Dar- 
winists on,  4  ;  Huxley  on,  4,  5  ; 
in  Nature,  5  ;  Kessler  on,  6; 
who  are  the  fittest  in  it  ?  57  ; 
and  competition,  theory  of,  ana- 
lyzed, 60-75,  307 

Struggles,  the  part  they  play  in 
history,  115  ;  subject  of  historical 
documents,  116 

Suabian  League,  206 

Sueves,  126,  136 

Suka,  150 

Sumatra,  52 


346 


INDEX 


Sungari  river,  48 

Surrey,  237 

Sutherland,  A.,  on  moral  instinct, 
xviii  ;  appreciation  of  Huber"s 
work,  303 

Swallows,  one  species  displacing 
another,  61 

Swiss  Confederation,  197,  207 

Switzerland,  sociable  weasels,  40 ; 
lake-dwellings,  83;  roads,  129, 
218  ;  village  communities  selling 
lands,  235  «.,  238 

Syevertsoff,  N.,  on  Mutual  Aid,  9  ; 
on  hunting  associations  of  white- 
tailed  eagles,  20 ;  nesting  asso- 
ciations of  birds,  33,  312 

Sykes,  Col.,  14  n. 

Sylvestre,  village  community  in 
Annam,  127 

Sympathies,  "  stratified  "  with  the 
rich,  289 

Sympathy,  xii,  xiii 

Syndicats  agricoles,  246 

Tachart,  91 

Taine,  231 

Taisha,  139 

Tartar  villages,  147 

Taurida,  province,  village  commu- 
nity in,  253 

Taylors,  guild  of  the  Merchant 
175  n. 

Tchany,  Lake,  desiccation  of,  1 19  n. 

Tchernyshevsky,  N.  G.,  essay  on 
Darwinism,  74 

Tchuktchis,  91 ;  infanticide  pre- 
vented, 103 

Tennant,  Sir  E.,  on  Ceylon,  41 

Territorial  union,  grows  up  instead 
of  bonds  of  common  descent, 
119  seq.  ;  gods,  120 

Terssac,  M.,  247  n. 

Tessino,  213  n. 

Teutons,  The,  village  community, 
122  ;  common  culture.  126,  131  n. 

Thaddart,  122,  142 

Thierry,  Augustin,  early  sense  of 
word  "king,"  161 ;  free  cities, 
162,  168,  177,  188  n, 

Thlinkets,  The,  95 

Threshing  machines  kept  in  com- 
mon, 244 

Thrushes,  one  species  displacing 
another,  61 

Thun,  203  n. 


Thurso,  commune  of,  183  ;  commu- 
nal purchases,  184 

Tibet,  47 

Tofa,  122 

Tolstoi,  Lev  Nikolaevich,  hay- 
making in  a  Russian  village,  256 

Tortona,  205 

Toucans,  mocking-eagles,  26 

Toussenel,  6 

Town  halls,  mediaeval,  210 

Trade  unions.  See  Labourers, 
Strikes 

Transbaikalia,  ix 

Transcaspian  kites,  22 

Tree-creepers'  family,  311,  312 

Trevisa,  174  n.,  205 

Tribal  marriage,  316  seq. 

Tribal  organization  of  primitive 
men,  78-88,  Appendix  VII 

Tribal  stage,  proved  by  an  im- 
mense array  of  facts,  314  seq. 

Tschudi,  animal  life  in  the  Alps, 
40 

Tuetey,  on  municipalities,  201 

Tungus,  hunter,  48  ;  on  European 
morality,  105 

Tunguses,  91 

Tupi,  The,  149 

Turgot,  measures  against  folkmotes, 
121 

Turkestan,  East,  1 19 

Turks,  invasion,  217 

Tuscany,  203  n. ;  league  of,  205 ; 
agriculture,  210  #. 

Tver,  217 

Tylor,  Edward  H.,  on  tribal  origin 
of  family,  79 ;  on  degeneration 
theory,  83 

Udyelnyi period  in  Russia,  166  ». 

Ugrians,  invasion  of,  165 

Ulm,  206 

Ulrik,  St.,  167 

Uncle,  maternal,  318 

Uncle  Toby's  Society,  280 

Under-population,    69,    Appendix 

VII,  313 
Universitas,  126 
Universities,  Italian,  215 
Unterwalden,  40 
Ural  Altayans,  119 
Ural  Cossacks,  273 
Uri,  197 

Urmans  of  West  Siberia,  84 
Urubii  vultures,  22 


INDEX 


347 


Usuri  river,  viii,  141 
Utah,  59 
Uthelred,  St.,  167 

Vandals,  federations,  136 

Vanellus.     See  Lapwing. 

Variety  of  adaptations  in  one  bird's 
family,  311,  312 

Vaud,  canton,  238,  239 

Veniaminoff,  missionary,  later 
Metropolitan  of  Moscow,  on  the 
Aleoutes,  99  seq.  ;  their  code  of 
morality,  99 ;  infanticide  among 
Tchukchis  prevented  by,  103 

Venice,  St.  Marc  of,  168;  art,  I74»., 
198  ;  distribution  of  provisions, 
183  ;  league,  205 

Vereinfiir  Verbrestung gemeinniitz- 
licher  Kenntnisse,  281 

Verona,  174  ».,  204,  205 

Versailles,  197 

Vicenza,  205 

Vicunas,  60 

Village  and  town,  203 

Village  community,  worked  out  to 
resist  disintegration,  120;  its 
universal  extension,  121,  122 ; 
explorers  of,  121  n. ;  its  different 
names,  122  ;  not  a  servile  growth 
but  anterior  to,  122 ;  bibliography 
of,  122  ».  ;  relation  to  joint 
family  phasis,  123  ;  common 
possession  of  land,  124  ;  clearing 
of  woods,  125  ;  work  in  common, 
126;  common  cultivation,  128; 
roads  built,  129;  forts,  129; 
budding  of  new  villages,  130 ; 
judicial  -functions  of  folkmote, 
131  ;  of  feudal  lord,  132  ;  the 
fred,  132  ;  extent  of  jurisdiction, 
132;  "composition,"  133;  its 
amount,  133  ;  moral  principles, 
134 ;  confederations  of,  136 ; 
military  protection,  137  ;  with 
the  Buryates,  138-141  ;  Kabyles, 
141-146  ;  mountaineers  of  Cau- 
casia, 146-148  ;  in  Africa,  148  ; 
with  the  Brazil  Tupis,  149  ;  the 
Arani,  149 ;  the  Oucagas,  149 ; 
the  Malayans,  149;  the  Alfurus, 
149;  the  Wyandots,  1 50 ;  in  Suma- 
tra, 1 50 ;  universality  of,  1 50-1 52 ; 
achievements,  1 57 ;  independence 
retained  in  early  mediaeval  times, 
164  ;  federation  of  village  com- 


munities in  the  city,  166-168 ; 
efforts  of  rich  and  State  to  get 
rid  of,  229;  destruction  of,  in 
France,  230-233 ;  in  England, 
233-23S  >  m  Germany,  Austria, 
Prussia,  Belgium,  235  ;  persever- 
ing till  now,  236 ;  laws  and 
institutions  derived  from,  in 
Britain,  236 ;  in  Switzerland, 
238-240 ;  in  France,  241-247  ; 
in  Germany,  247-249 ;  village 
community  in  Russia,  250-259  ; 
in  Turkey,  Caucasia,  259 ;  in 
Asia  and  Africa,  259,  260;  recent 
spontaneous  growth  in  Russia, 
252  seq. 

Village  life  in  France,  241  seq. 

Villages,  leagues  of,  206 

Vinogradov,  Prof.,  on  village  com- 
munity in  England,  121, 157  ;  on 
pillage  of  communal  lands,  234, 
.313 

Viollet,  P.,  on  old  institutions,  122 

Viscacha,  45 

Vitalis,  1 68  «. 

Vogt,  reception  of  the,  164 ;  func- 
tions, 170,  1 80 

Votkinsk  iron- works,  274 

Vultures,  sociable,  22 

V.  V.,  on  peasant  community,  250 
seq. 

Vyeche,  Weich  (folkmote),  166  »., 
179 

Wages,  State  regulation  by,  in 
England,  264,  265 

Wagner,  A.,  235  n. 

Wagner,  Moritz,  on  isolation,  65 

Wagtails  chasing  sparrow-hawk, 
25  ;  also  fishing-hawk,  25 

Waitz,  89,  91,  101  ».,  104  ;  common 
culture,  127 ;  Oucagas,  149 ; 
Malayans,  150 

Wales,  village  community  in,  121 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  on  struggle  for  life, 
I  ;  on  orang-utans,  51  :  features 
useful  in  struggle  for  life,  57 ; 
struggle  for  life  and  competition, 
theory  of,  analyzed,  60-75  ;  argu- 
ments of  Wallace  in  favour  of, 
62,  63 ;  metaphoric  sense  of 
"  extermination  "  more  probable, 
63 ;  migration  factor,  65-67  ; 
over  -  population  and  natural 
checks  to,  68-72 ;  how  animals 


348 


INDEX 


avoid    competition,    72-75  ;    on 

thrushes,  61  n. 
Walt,  Johan  van  der,  89 
Walter,  on  village  community  in 

Wales,    122;    common    culture, 

127 

Warriors,  bands  of,  155-157 
Warwickshire,  237 
Waterford,  183  n.,  184,  185 
Wauters,    A.,    Belgian    mediaeval 

cities,  189  n, 
Weasels,  40 
Weather,  effect  on  insects,  on  birds, 

69-72 
Webb,  Sidney  and  Beatrice, History 

of  Trade-  Unionism,  266,  267,  268 
Weddell,  H.  A.,  mutual  protection 

among  vicunas,  60 
Weichbild,  190 
Welsh,  The,  common  culture,  126  ; 

"triads,"  135 
Wergeld,  158 
Westermarck,    Prof.    Edward,    on 

history  of  human  marriage,  313 

seq. 

Westminster,  324 
Westphalia,    207    n. ;    communal 

culture,  248 

Westphalian  League,  205 
Whewell,  on  mediaeval  inventions, 

214 
White,  Natural  History  ofSelbsme* 

36  n. 
Whitechapel,    mutual    support    in 

slums,  286,  287 
Wied,   Prince,  on  eagles  mocked 

by  toucans,  26 

Wilman,  R.,  on  Westphalian  federa- 
tions, 207 

Wilmot  Street,  287 
Wiltshire,  237 
Winchester,  167 
Winckell,   Dietrich   de,  on  hares, 

45  ;  Handbook,  46 


Wises,  The,  219 

Wives,  exchange  of,  among  Eski- 
mos, 96 ;  in  Australia,  96  n.  ; 
3i8 

Wolfgang,  St.,  167 

Woman,  inferior  position  in  clan, 

319 

Women,  mockeries  in  case  of  small 
faults, with  the  Eskimos,  96;  in  the 
tribe,  112;  educational  institu- 
tions for,  in  Russia,  281  n. 

Wood,  J.  C.,  on  compassion  among 
animals,  59 

Woodhewers'  family,  311,  312 

Workers.     See  Labourers 

Worms,  207  n. 

Wormser  Zorn,  205 

Wunderer,  J.  D.,  guild  on  board 
ship,  170 

Wiirttemberg,  co-operation  in,  247  n. 

Wiirzburg,  181,  182,  193 

Xanten,  labourers  of,  194  «. 

Yadrintseff,  desiccation  of  Siberian 
lakes,  118  n. 

Yenisei,  37 

Yorkshire,  237 ;  miners,  strike  of, 
269,  289 

Young,  Arthur,  on  French  agricul- 
ture, 231 

Yukon  river,  Aleoutes,  97 

Zadruga,  123,  320,  321 

Zakataly  district,  147 

Zarudnyi,  N.,  on  sociability  of  kites, 

22  ;  of  hares,  306 
Zebras,  46,  47 
Zemstvos,  house-to-house  inquiry, 

250 

Zoologische  Garten,  Der,  37 
Zopfl,  on  Weichbild,  190  ». 
Zurich,  199  «. 
Zwickau,  225 


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